Synthesis, Characterization, Photocatalytic and Antimicrobial Activities of Copper Doped Silver and Nickel Oxide Nanoparticles

ABSTRACT: The copper-doped silver and nickel oxide nanoparticles were prepared by the co-precipitation method in which the silver oxide (Ag2O) and nickel oxide (NiO) nanoparticles are doped with copper in 4:1 in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), a surfactant. Then various analytical studies were carried out by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The XRD analysis revealed the crystalline structure and the size of nanoparticles was determined by using Scherrer’s formula. The XRD data showed the effect of doping on crystallinity and size. It was found that the size of nanoparticles was reduced without any change in crystallinity after doping. DRS results showed that when silver oxide and nickel oxide nanoparticles were doped with copper oxide nanoparticles, the energy band gap was shifted to a lesser value, i.e., from 1.50 to 1.17 eV for Ag2O and from 2.29 to 2.08 eV for NiO, respectively. The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) and eriochrome black-T (EBT) by nanoparticles was monitored by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The antimicrobial activity of the synthesized nanoparticles was checked by using well diffusion assay and it was found that doped nanoparticles were more active than the undoped ones.