Abstract
Nickel oxide (NiO) nanosheets were prepared using a hydrothermal method, and vanadium-decorated nickel oxide nanosheets were prepared using a photoassisted deposition method. The NiO and vanadium-decorated nickel oxide (V@NiO) photocatalysts were investigated by several techniques, including BET, XPS, PL, UV-Vis, XRD, and TEM. The results demonstrated that the NiO bandgap energy can be adjusted by adjusting the weight percent of decorated vanadium. Malachite green dye degradation under visible light conditions was chosen to measure the photocatalytic performance of the NiO and V@NiO samples. Additionally, parameters that affect photocatalytic performance, such as the concentration of malachite green dye, dose of the photocatalyst and vanadium weight percent, were studied in detail. The outcomes reveal that V@NiO samples have photocatalytic activity higher than that of NiO samples due to their ability to hinder the electron-hole recombination rate and decrease the band gap energy.