Abstract
In this study, structural and optical properties of 0 and 4 wt% Nb-doped NiO thin films deposited by DC/RF magnetron sputtering technique at different substrate temperatures were studied. XRD patterns display peaks corresponding to pure trigonal NiO, No other peaks were noticed that is reflects well dispersion of Nb nanoparticles on the lattice of NiO thin films. Both intensity of photoluminescence (PL) and optical band gab have been greatly affected by Nb-doping and substrate temperatures. The photo-catalytic degradation of MG dye using the doped thin films under visible light showed that Nb-doping and increasing the substrate temperatures plays a significant role to increase the photocatalytic efficiency from 67, 80 to 100 % within 3 hrs for the films prepared at 25 (Room temperature), 100 and 200 degrees C respectively. For getting the kinetics parameters, pseudo first order kinetics was applied.