Facile Synthesis of Ni-Doped ZnO Nanoparticles Using Cashew Gum: Investigation of the Structural, Optical, and Photocatalytic Properties

This work adopted a green synthesis route using cashew tree gum as a mediating agent to obtain Ni-doped ZnO nanoparticles through the sol-gel method. Structural analysis confirmed the formation of the hexagonal wurtzite phase and distortions in the crystal lattice due to the inclusion of Ni cations, which increased the average crystallite size from 61.9 nm to 81.6 nm. These distortions resulted in the growth of point defects in the structure, which influenced the samples' optical properties, causing slight reductions in the band gaps and significant increases in the Urbach energy. The fitting of the photoluminescence spectra confirmed an increase in the concentration of zinc vacancy defects (VZn) and monovacancies (Vo) as Zn cations were replaced by Ni cations in the ZnO structure. The percentage of VZn defects for the pure compound was 11%, increasing to 40% and 47% for the samples doped with 1% and 3% of Ni cations, respectively. In contrast, the highest percentage of VO defects is recorded for the material with the lowest Ni ions concentration, comprising about 60%. The influence of dopant concentration was also reflected in the photocatalytic performance. Among the samples tested, the Zn0.99Ni0.01O compound presented the best result in MB degradation, reaching an efficiency of 98.4%. Thus, the recovered material underwent reuse tests, revealing an efficiency of 98.2% in dye degradation, confirming the stability of the photocatalyst. Furthermore, the use of different inhibitors indicated that center dot OH radicals are the main ones involved in removing the pollutant. This work is valuable because it presents an ecological synthesis using cashew gum, a natural polysaccharide that has been little explored in the literature.