Photocatalytic and antibacterial activity study of ternary oxide of Ni-Al-Cd and their nanocomposite with carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Ni-Al-Cd oxide nanostructures were fabricated by facile co-precipitation method and was embedded on CNTs by the ultrasonication method. The properties and structural features of prepared materials were analyzed by various techniques such as X-Ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The synthesized nanomaterials were employed for degradation of methylene blue under sunlight and for antibacterial study. The photocatalytic results indicate that the ternary oxide of Ni-Al-Cd has a greater potential for degradation of methylene blue and other harmful compounds owing to possible heterojunction development. The photocatalytic degradation of ternary Ni-Al-Cd oxides/CNTs was 67.16% within 2 h. Moreover, photocatalytic activity was increased by carbon nanotubes. The results revealed that ternary oxides and their nanocomposite with CNTs have an excellent ability for photocatalytic degradation and showed better antibacterial activity than ternary oxides.

Keywords

• Ternary oxide
• carbon nanotubes
• photocatalysis
• sunlight