Accelerated Synthesis and Analysis of NiO, ZnO, and ZnO/NiO Materials for Prospective Applications

Abstract

This work demonstrates a straightforward, inexpensive, and rapidroute for the synthesis of nickel oxide (NiO), Zinc Oxide (ZnO), and its composite (ZnO/NiO)nanoparticles through the green methodusing Azadirachtaindica (Neem) leaves. The structure, morphology, and elementalconstituents were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy,and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The energy band gap of pure NiO, ZnO,andZnO/NiO composite was evaluated using the Tauc plot from absorption spectra and resulted as 4.6, 5.1, and 5.2 eV, respectively. The prominent functional groups identified by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Therefore, comparatively individual NiO and ZnO, semiconductingcomposite-based nanocatalysts such as ZnO/NiO composites arepromising for future industrial applications.