Synthesis and characterization of Ni-doped TiO2 activated carbon nanocomposite for the photocatalytic degradation of anthracene

Nickel-doped titanium dioxide nanoparticles (NDT) deposited on pine cone activated carbon (PAC) have been successfully synthesized by a hydrothermal method. The as synthesized nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray photoelectron (XPS), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectra (UV–vis DRS), Photoluminescence (PL), BET surface area, and pHzpc. The characterization results of the prepared nanocomposite revealed that Ni-TiO2 was loaded on the surface of PAC, and had a higher surface area and narrower bandgap than TiO2 nanoparticles. The visible-light photocatalytic activity of the Ni-TiO2@C nanocomposite towards anthracene degradation was found to be 99.9% in 50 mins leading to end products of (1E, 3Z)-hexa-1,3,5-trien-1-ol (1a; m/z = 96), and (1E, 3E)-penta-1,3-dien-1-ol. The synthesized Ni-TiO2@C nanocomposite exhibited a better photocatalytic activity towards the photocatalytic degradation of anthracene as compared to the TiO2 nanomaterial (22.5%) and TiO2/activated carbon nanocomposite (31%) under similar conditions. The photodegradation of anthracene followed the pseudo first-order rate kinetics. The Ni-TiO2@C nanocomposite had excellent regeneration properties till the fifth cycle of use during which it degraded around 73% anthracene.