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Copper-Doped Nickle-Oxide Nanoparticles for Photocatalytic Degradation of

Erichrome Black-T and Methylene Blue and Its Solar Cell Applications

Article  in  Journal of Nanoelectronics and Optoelectronics · September 2019

DOI: 10.1166/jno.2019.2551

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ARTICLE

Copper-Doped Nickle-Oxide Nanoparticles for

Photocatalytic Degradation of Erichrome Black-T
and Methylene Blue and Its Solar Cell Applications
Zaheer Ahmad1 , Amir Muhammad Afzal2 , Muhammad Farooq Khan2, ∗ , Aleena Manzoor3 ,
Hafiz M. W. Khalil4 , and Sikandar Aftab2

Metal oxides and thin films nanostructures have been attaining a great interest due to their auspicious prop-
erties, stability at high temperature and durability which make them an intriguing candidate for photocatalysis
and solar cell applications. In this study, we doped NiOX nanoparticles with Copper (Cu) to enhance the
photocatalytic and solar cell activity. However, we investigate the size, thickness, photocatalytic activity and
photovoltaic characterization of CuO, NiOX and Cu–NiOX nanoparticles. We observed the size and band gap
of CuO, NiOX and Cu-doped NiOX nanoparticles. Although, the band gap of NiOX nanoparticles is reduced
by Cu doping which leads to the enhancement of photocatalic activity degradation, photocurrent and power
conversion efficiency. Moreover, we demonstrated the nanoparticles thin film based solar cell manifested by
ITO/NiOX and ITO/Cu–NiOX junctions. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) is improved from 3.1% to 4.3%
when NiOX nanoparticles were doped with Cu to synthesis Cu–NiOX nanoparticles thin film. Thus, doping of
high transition metal nanoparticles provide new ideas in nanoelectronics and optoelectronic devices.
Keywords: NiOX -Nanoparticles, Photocatalytic Activity, Photocatalytic Degradation, Dyes-Degradation, Solar Cell,
Photoconductivity.

1. INTRODUCTION transparent conducting oxide (TCO) candidate because the

Nickel oxide (NiOX  nanostructures are important tran-
sition metal oxides with band gap 3.6 eV, having cubic
lattice structure [1]. It has been gaining much atten-
tion because of gigantic potential in a variety of appli-
cations such as; battery cathodes, catalysis, gas sensors,
electrochromic films and magnetic materials [2–7]. It
can also be widely utilized in dye-sensitized photocath-
ode and demonstrates anodic electrochromism, outstanding
electrochemical stability and durability, large spin opti-
cal density and numerous manufacturing possibilities [8].
On the other hand, the NiOx nanostructure is a p-type
1
Department of Chemistry, School of Science, University of
Management & Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
2
Deparment of Physics and Astronomy, Graphene Research Institute,
Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Korea
3
Department of Physics, G. C University, Faisalabad, Pakistan
4
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Sargodha, Pakistan
∗
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Email: mfk.sejong@gmail.com
Received: 11 November 2018
Accepted: 18 December 2018
origin of hole transport is nickel vacancies and/or oxy-
gen interstitials. Generally, the NiOx in the stoichiomet-
ric ratio is an insulator with a giant electrical resistivity
 of 1013 -cm) [9]. However, its resistivity can be
decreased considerably by generating nickel (Ni) vacan-
cies and forming interstitial oxygen (O2  atoms in NiO
crystallites [10, 11].
Secondly, Electrochromism in NiOx nanostructure is
rather complexed and there is no single established
model to describe the mechanism that explains and con-
trol the coloring and bleaching process [12]. Generally,
the transition of NiOx from a colored to a bleached
state is interlinked between the Ni+2 and Ni+3 reversible
transformation [13]. Recently, many researchers begin
to investigate different methods such as doping of NiO
with metal ions to improve basic aspects. In this regard,
a researcher group doped NiOx with a wide-ranging vari-
ety of additives such as magnesium (Mg), aluminum (Al),
silicon (Si) to enhance the photo, optical and electrical
properties, and durability [14]. Another group reported that
the existence of numerous additives such as cadmium (Cd),
cobalt (Co), and zinc (Zn) in hydrated NiOx can intensely

J. Nanoelectron. Optoelectron. 2019, Vol. 14, No. xx 1555-130X/2019/14/001/009 doi:10.1166/jno.2019.2551 1

Copper-Doped Nickle-Oxide Nanoparticles for Photocatalytic Degradation of Erichrome Black-T
recover the electrochemical properties [15]. Ferreira et al.
doped the NiOx with metallic particles such as copper
(Cu), silver (Ag), gold (Au), and improved the spectral
response and also proved that the dispersion and clustering
of such metallic particles severely affected the transmit-
tance [16]. To overcome above mention limitation, mono-
valent impurities such as doping of NiO with copper (Cu)
has been done [17]. Since, in Ni–Cu solid solutions, there
is no solubility limit. So, it is possible that large amounts
of Cu could substitute for Ni sites in the NiOx lattice to
enhance electrical properties of the NiOx nanostructure.
Such type of doping helps to decrease the resistivity and
band gap. The improvement in NiOx characteristics has
been made it suitable in a variety of applications.
Several studies have been shown on metal oxides in
which many characteristic properties (optical, magnetic,
structural, and antibacterial) can be altered by the addition
of transition metal impurities into the NiOX lattice. So far,
the dyes are complex organic compounds with character-
istic intensity, color and solubility. The most common use
of dyes is in polyester dyeing and cotton dyeing. There
are several critical factors regarding dyes which may cause
environmental and health issue. These dyes could easily
enter into the waste water from industries and also mix into
the food chain causing critical health issues. Previously,
different techniques have been applied for degradation of
dyes like coagulation, biological treatment, ion exchange
and chemical oxidation [18]. For chemical oxidation of
dyes, different metallic oxide nanoparticles can be grown
like NiOX , CuO, ZnO etc.
In addition, NiOX doped with copper (Cu) has antibac-
terial and magnetic properties which are acceptable
for biomedicines and spintronic applications. Different
physical and chemical methods have been established to
synthesize the NiOX and transition metal doped NiOX
nanoparticles. The nanostructures of copper oxide (CuO),
as a p-type semiconductor material with narrow band
gap (1.2–1.4 eV), have been used broadly as catalysts,
visible-light-driven photocatalysts and ultraviolet visible-
light-driven photocatalysts, biosensors lithium-ion batter-
ies and antibacterial materials [19–22].
Moreover, the NiOX material is also considerable effect
in perovskite solar cells (PVSCs) applications, which can
improve the efficiency of devices. Therefore, NiOX has
been introduced as an effective holes transport layers
(HTLs) in inverted and further p-type PVSCs [23, 24].
However, in previous reports the solution-processed NiOX ,
HTLs were grown via sol–gel nanoparticles and dispersed
in polar organic solvents or distill water [25, 26]. While
a high temperature thermal annealing process (250–300 C
or higher) is frequently required in few cases.
Moreover, NiOX semiconductor turns out to be a
motivating candidate in the new research paragon of
dyes and solar cell applications due to its controlled
band gap by doping phenomenon. The physicochemi-
cal properties of CuO nanomaterials strongly based on
2 J. Nanoelectron. Optoelectron., 14, 1–9, 2019
Ahmad et al.
their size and morphology [27]. Hence, various meth-
ods such as solution evaporation method, sonochemi-
cal method, mechanochemical method, solid-state method,
hydrothermal method, sol–gel method and solution chem-
istry method have been carried out to synthesize the CuO,
NiO and Cu-doped NiOx nanoparticles and their mor-
phologies to enhance its properties [28–32]. Despite all,
NiOX nanoparticles catalyst as a counter electrode, used
for high performance dye-sensitized solar cells [33, 34]
but it lacks to develop low-cost ITO based photovoltaic
devices.
In this communication, we successfully synthesized
nickel oxide (NiO), copper oxide (CuO), and Cu-doped
NiOX nanoparticles by chemical co-precipitation method.
The NiOX and Cu doped NiOX thin film is grown by
a spin coating method. We have doped NiOX nanopar-
ticles with Cu and then their degradation of methylene
blue and erichrome black-T are compared to those of un-
doped NiOX nanoparticles. The efficient Cu doped NiOX of
holes layer can be deposited at a low temperature 130  C
without any post-treatments, making it very promising and
attractive materials for solar cell applications. In addition,
these thin films were investigated to analyze the ITO based
solar cell applications. The PCE of NiOX thin film is 3.1%
which increased up to 4.3% when NiOX nanoparticles were
doped with Cu nanoparticles.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
CuO, NiOx and Cu-doped NiOX nanoparticles were syn-
thesized by chemical co-precipitation method. This is low
cost and effective method can be obtained uniform and
single-phase nanoparticles of Cu-doped NiOX nanoparti-
cles. The chemicals used for the synthesis of copper doped
nickel oxide nanoparticles are Copper chloride, Nickel
chloride, Sodium hydroxide, Sodium dodisyl sulphate and
distilled water [35, 36].
We took 0.1 M sodium dodesyl sulphate (SDS) in
100 ml of distilled water at 60  C for 20 minutes, and
took 1 g of copper chloride and added in the SDS solution.
We put the mixture for ultra-sonicated for 30 minutes at
room temperature. In the next step, we added 5 M sodium
hydroxide drop by drop at room temperature to adjust pH
value of the mixed solution and adjusted it to 10–11. The
resulting suspensions or precipitates of CuO nanoparticles
were stirred at room temperature for 3–5 hours. Later we
filtered the obtained solid and washed it several times to
remove the base from the solid. The precipitate was first
dried at 80–100  C for 2–3 hours and then calcined at
500–550  C for 3 hours to get copper oxide nanoparticles.
For this purpose, we took a 0.1 M solution of sodium
dodesyl sulphate (SDS), which was prepared in 100 ml
distilled water at 60  C and then the solution was stirred
for 20 minutes, after that 1 g nickel chloride was added
in SDS solution. The mixture was progressively ultra-
sonicated for 30 minutes at room temperature. In order to
Ahmad et al. Copper-Doped Nickle-Oxide Nanoparticles for Photocatalytic Degradation of Erichrome Black-T
adjust the pH of the solution at 10–11, we add 5 M sodium
hydroxide drop by drop at room temperature. The resulted
product was stirred at room temperature for 3–5 hours.
Subsequently, the obtained solid was filtered and washed
several times to remove the base from the solid. Nanopar-
ticles were dried at 80–100  C and then calcinated at
500–550  C for 3 hours to attain nickel oxide nanoparti-
cles. Successively, we took 0.1 M sodium dodesyl sulphate
(SDS) in 100 ml distilled water at 60  C. After 20 min-
utes 0.8 g nickel chloride and 0.2 g copper chloride (4:1)
were added in SDS solution. We put the mixture for ultra-
sonicated for 30 minutes at room temperature. In the next
step, we inserted 5 M sodium hydroxide solution drop by
drop at room temperature and pH value of mixed solu-
tion was adjusted to 10–11. The obtained suspensions were
performed at room temperature for 3–5 hours.
We filter the as obtained solid materials and washed
several times to remove base from the solid. We dried
it at 80–100  C and finally calcined at 500–550  C for
3 hours to attain copper-doped nickel oxide nanoparticles.
The prepared Cu doped NiOX nanoparticles powder was
dispersed into water to prepare a Cu–NiOX nanoparticle
solution for spin coating [37] on ITO-Glass substrate to
grow a thin film of Cu doped NiOX thin film. The crystal
structure of pure and Cu–NiOX nanoparticles were studied
by Bruker, D8/Germany X-ray diffractometer using Cu-K
(1.5406 Å) radiations with K = 0.9.
Fig. 1. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterization patterns of (a) CuO nano-crystallites (b) NiOx nano-crystallites (c) for Cu doped NiOX nanopar-
ticles and (d) combined XRD pattern for CuO, NiOX and Cu doped NiOX nanoparticles.
J. Nanoelectron. Optoelectron., 14, 1–9, 2019
Moreover, to confirm the thickness, we used field
emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). Further
for solid-state studies on absorbance, transmittance and
reflectance UV-Visible/NIR spectrometer (Perkin Elmer,
Lambda 950/UK) with wavelength up to 3300 nm was
used. The current–voltage (I –V ) measurement for solar
cell devices was calculated with a voltmeter (Keithley
2400) under AM 1.5 illuminations (100 mWcm−2 .
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and SEM Images
Basically, the XRD is fast tool which is being used to
analyze the phase classification of crystalline materials.
In Figures 1(a–c) the powder X-ray diffraction pattern
of pure CuO, NiOX and Cu–NiOX nano-crystallites are
shown, respectively. All these crystallites were calcined at
500  C and the diffraction peaks and indexes are assigned
to the cubic phase of nickel oxide (JCPDS No-47-1049).
We observed that all the diffraction peaks NiOx nanopar-
ticles revealed the cubic structure of the crystal with three
noticeable X-ray diffraction peaks at 2 = 372 , 431 and
62.5 which could be allocated to the planes of NiO such
as (111), (200), and (220) respectively. Meanwhile in Cu–
NiOX , there is no extra peak is found due to copper metal,
which attributes that the transition metal ions (Cu or CuO)
are substituted at the nickel site without changing cubic
3
Copper-Doped Nickle-Oxide Nanoparticles for Photocatalytic Degradation of Erichrome Black-T
Fig. 2. Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) image
of (a) NiOX nano-crystallites (b) CuO nano-crystallites (c) FESEM image
of Cu doped NiOX nanoparticles.
Cos
structure which indicates that the concentration of light
element doping such as Cu could hardly amendment the
denotes the full width at half maximum and  defines
phase structure of NiO [38, 39].
Furthermore, it could be observed that the diffraction
peaks (111) and (200) slightly moved toward lower angles
after doping the Cu element. So, the lattice constant of
NiOx
Fig. 3. A depiction of DRS spectra of (a) NiOX nanoparticles (b) CuO nanoparticles (c) Cu-NiOX nanoparticles.
4 J. Nanoelectron. Optoelectron., 14, 1–9, 2019
Ahmad et al.
NiO increased due to Cu doping because the ionic radius
of Cu is larger than Ni (Cu∼82 pm > Ni∼78 pm) respec-
tively. However, in Figure 1(c), the intensity of the diffrac-
tion peaks is reduced with Cu doping which breaks the
crystallinity due to lattice distortion. In addition, as far as
the copper ions are incorporated into the periodic crystal
lattice of NiOX , a certain amount of strain is introduced
within the system, which changes the lattice periodicity
and deteriorates the crystal symmetry.
It is manifested from the XRD pattern of Cu–NiOX ,
the diffraction peaks become broadened, is an indication
of a decrease in grain size. It can also be observed in
Figure 1(d), the intensity of diffraction peaks are low
in Cu–NiOX samples as compared to of pure NiOX and
CuO samples due to low dimensional effect. By using
Debye-Scherrer’s formula the average crystallite size of
pure CuO, NiOX and copper doped NiOX samples were
calculated,
K
D= (1)
Where D is the crystalline size, K is a constant with value
(0.94), wavelength of the X-ray source 159 Å and
the Bragg’s angle. The estimated average crystallite size of
pure CuO, NiOX and Cu–NiOX samples by using Debye-
Scherrer’s formula were calculated to be 30.4, 26.8 and
20.6 nm respectively. From XRD peaks, when the intensity
CuO
Cu-NiOx
Ahmad et al. Copper-Doped Nickle-Oxide Nanoparticles for Photocatalytic Degradation of Erichrome Black-T
of each peak decreases and appears broad then the value
of full width at half maximum increase. So, the size of the
Cu–NiOx crystal reduced as compared to individual oxides
as the width of each diffraction peaks decreased [40]. Basi-
cally, in Debye-Scherrer’s formula
represents the full crystalline and pure phase nanoparticles as compared to
width at half maximum of the peaks of XRD data. How-
ever, the peaks become broaden and the value of full width
at half maximum increases such that; (
CuO <
NiOx < 3.2. DRS Spectra
Cu–NiOx . Therefore, the size of the Cu–NiOx crystal is
smaller than CuO and NiOx nanoparticles. It is observed
that the doped NiOX samples appeared better, in terms of
controlled crystallite size, than the previously reported val-
ues [36, 41].
For further confirmation of the size, the nanoparticles
were characterized by FESEM as shown in Figures 2(a–c)
which seems consistent with the size, calculated by Debye-
Scherrer’s formula. The size of CuO, NiOX and Cu–NiOX
nanoparticles, calculated by Scherrer’s formula, is compar-
atively small from previous reported values [42]. However,
the copper ion easily incorporated at the host sites (nickel)
without disturbing the crystal structure of Ni because the
difference of both ionic radii is very small [43]. The
characterized samples do not contain any secondary or
impurity peaks. In our characterized samples, the peaks
(a) Degradation of MB by NiOx nanoparticles
(b) Degradation of MB by Cu-NiOx nanoparticles
Fig. 4. A spectrum of the degradation by using MB of (a) NiOX
nanoparticles (b) Cu doped NiOX nanoparticles.
J. Nanoelectron. Optoelectron., 14, 1–9, 2019
intensity of XRD decreases with incorporation of Cu due
to micro strain which arising due to small difference
between both metal ionic radii. In our case we did not find
any additional peaks which confirm the formation of well
the previous reported values [36].
The size of band gap metal oxide nanoparticles is the key
factor of photocatalyst activity degradation and power con-
version efficiency. Therefore, the DRS characterizations
were accomplished. The band gap of NiOX , CuO and Cu–
NiOX are 2.29, 1.26, and 2.08 eV respectively as shown in
Figures 3(a)–(c). It is found that when NiOX nanoparticles
were doped with Cu nanoparticles, the band gap of NiOX
nanoparticles is decreased which can be seen from the
DRS spectra of NiOX and Cu–NiOX in Figures (a) and (c).
The results showed that in pure form of NiOX nanopar-
ticles, the band gap was 2.29 eV indicated by a tangent
line and reduced to 2.08 eV when Cu is doped into NiOX
nanoparticles.
Mostly, the dopants introduced the carriers which
occupy the distinct energy states near the edges of the
band of the host in a doped semiconductor [44]. So, in
our case holes are expected to develop at the top of the
valence band because NiOx is a p-type material. These
generated holes cause the shrinkage of bandgap of NiOx .
So, in our case the band gap is decreased more as com-
pared to the previous reports [45, 46]. The reduction of
the band gap indicates that electrons can easily become
free and will be responsible for degradation. Consequently,
(a) Degradation of EBT by NiOx nanoparticles
(b) Degradation of EBT by Cu-NiOx nanoparticles
Fig. 5. The degradation of EBTs by (a) NiOX nanoparticles and (b) Cu
doped NiOX nanoparticles.
5
Copper-Doped Nickle-Oxide Nanoparticles for Photocatalytic Degradation of Erichrome Black-T Ahmad et al.

Cu–NiOX nanoparticles were found more effective for the
degradation in dyes.
3.3. Photocatalytic Activity
The photocatalytic activity is merit analysis for the
degradation of dyes. The photocatalytic activity of Cu
doped NiOX nanoparticles was compared with pure NiOX
nanoparticles for the degradation of methylene blue (MB)
and erichrome bleck-T (EBT) in powder form. Figures 4(a)
and (b) shows the UV-Visible adsorption spectra of an
aqueous solution of 22.4 micro-molar MB with photo-
catalysts, respectively. The characteristic adsorption peak
of MB at 665 nm is monitored as a function of light
for NiOX and Cu–NiOx , irradiated for a different interval
of time. It can be seen that adsorption peak diminishes
sharply after 30 minutes and completely disappears after
90 minutes by using Cu–NiOX . However, adsorption of
the peak using pure NiOX shows slow reduction intensity
than Cu doped NiOX catalyst and our results are better as
compared to the previous reports [48].
Further, Figures 5(a) and (b) shows the photocatalytic
degradation of EBT using pure NiOX and Cu doped NiOX
photo-catalysts respectively. It can be observed from the
chart that after different intervals of time the peak length

Fig. 6. Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) image of (a) NiOX thin film on ITO-glass (b) Cu doped NiOX thin film on ITO-glass.
(c) The schematic drawing of ITO base thin film solar cell device. (d) The current density versus voltage (J –V ) characteristics of solar cell device.
(e) The PEC and FF is improved in Cu–NiO devices as compared to NiO based solar cell devices.

6 J. Nanoelectron. Optoelectron., 14, 1–9, 2019

Ahmad et al. Copper-Doped Nickle-Oxide Nanoparticles for Photocatalytic Degradation of Erichrome Black-T
Fig. 7. (a) Cross-section image of ITO/Cu–NiOx film is taken by FESEM. (b) The transient photocurrent response of NiOx and Cu–NiOx thin film
were measured under UV light at Vds = 5 V.
diminishes very sharply using Cu doped NiOX as photo-
catalyst than for pure NiOX . All measurements were taken
after 3 minutes.
3.4. Characterizations of Solar Cell
The low cast and versatile methodology of energy storage
is indispensable in nanoelectronic and photoelectronic
devices. To encounter these requirements, we fabricated
the NiOX and Cu–NiOX thin films solar cell devices.
The (FESEM) images of p-type thin films, synthe-
sized by NiOX and Cu–NiOX nanoparticles are shown in
Figures 6(a) and (b), respectively. However, the grain size
of NiOX is small as compared to the grain size of Cu–
NiOX . To confirm the thickness of spin coated nanoparti-
cles thin film of Cu–NiOx , we have taken cross-sectional
image of the film by FESEM as shown in Figure 7(a). The
thickness of Cu–NiOx film is in the range of ∼60 nm and
the active area of the solar cell devices is 4 mm × 5 mm.
In order to characterize the solar study, we fabricated
the solar cells based on glass/ITO/NiOX and glass/ITO/Cu–
NiOX structures. The sheet resistance of the ITO film is
12∼14 ohm/sq whereas glass is insulator and have no
influence on electrical measurement. The schematic struc-
ture of the device is illustrated in Figure 6(c). The cur-
rent density–voltage (J –V ) measurements of each solar
cell were measured under illumination of 100 mWcm−2
as shown in Figure 6(d). The Cu–NiOX thin film demon-
strated the better solar response than NiOX thin film.
The PCE is calculated by following equation [49].
Voc ×Jsc × F F
PCE = (2)
Pin
Whereas,
Vmax × Imax
FF = (3)
Voc × Isc
Here, Voc is open circuit voltage, Jsc is short circuit current
density, F F is fill factor, Pin is the input power of illumina-
tion, Vmax and Imax are the maximum voltage and maximum
current values at which maximum power of the device can
be obtained, respectively. From Figure 6(d) we extracted
J. Nanoelectron. Optoelectron., 14, 1–9, 2019
the values of Voc , Jsc , and F F of the ITO/NiOX junction
device are 0.46 V, 22.54 mA·cm−2 and 33.4% respectively,
give rise a PCE of 3.1%. On the other hand, in the case of
the ITO/Cu–NiOX junction solar cell, the calculated val-
ues of of Voc , Jsc , and F F are 0.50 V, 25.1 mA · cm−2 and
36.1%, respectively, yielding a PCE of 4.3%. Interestingly
in comparison, the PCE is increased from 3.1% to 4.3%
when thin film of NiOX nanoparticles was doped with Cu
nanoparticles. We have investigated more than 5 samples
based on NiOx and Cu–NiOx thin films, owing a stable and
reliable solar cell performance as shown in Figure 6(e). We
proposed that this improvement in PCE is attributed to Cu
doping in NiOX , leads to more rectifying junction between
ITO and Cu–NiOx . Since, in our study the solar cell effi-
ciency is relatively high as compare to previous reports of
solar cells, based on NiOx thin films [50–54]. Further, we
investigated the photoconductivity a key phenomenon in
solar cell application. The photocurrent as function of time
has been shown in Figure 7(b). The photocurrent of Cu–
NiOx film is high which is attributed to the small band gap
of Cu–NiOx as compared to NiOx film. Since, Cu–NiOx
thin film has opened new avenue for photovoltaic device
applications.
4. CONCLUSIONS
In a recent study, we have synthesized, CuO, NiOX and
Cu–NiOX nanoparticles by using chemical co-precipitation
method. The structural, optical and photocatalytic prop-
erties of CuO, NiOX and Cu–NiOX nanostructures have
been investigated by using XRD, FESEM, DSR spectra.
To examine the photocatalytic activity, MB and EBT tests
were accomplished for different intervals. Therefore, the
size of CuO, NiOX and Cu–NiOX nanoparticles are cal-
culated to be 30.4, 26.8 and 20.6 nm, respectively. The
band gap of NiOX , CuO and Cu–NiOX are in the range
of 2.29, 1.86 and 2.08 eV, respectively by using the DSR
technique. As compared to pure NiOX nanoparticles, Cu
doped NiOX nanoparticles exhibited enhanced photocat-
alytic activity towards the degradation of methylene blue
(MB) and erichrome black-T (EBT) dye under visible
7
Copper-Doped Nickle-Oxide Nanoparticles for Photocatalytic Degradation of Erichrome Black-T
light. Moreover, the thin films were grown by spin coat-
ing and we observed that the grain size of Cu–NiOX is
smaller than NiOX and confirmed by FESEM. For solar
cell application, we fabricate the ITO/NiOX and ITO/Cu–
NiOX devices. It is observed that in NiOX thin film the
PEC is 3.1% and further it enhanced to 4.3%, when NiOX
thin film is replaced by Cu–NiOX . However, it is facile and
low-cost rout to develop solar cell application.
Author Information
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
Acknowledgment: This work was supported by
the Priority Research Center Program (2010–
0020207) and the Basic Science Research Pro-
gram (2016R1D1A1A09917762) through the National
Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the
Korea government (Ministry of Education, Ministry of
Science and ICT).
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