Preparation and photocatalytic degradation of nickel/carbon microspheres for methylene blue removal

In this paper, carbon microspheres were prepared using glucose and ammonium carbonate at low temperatures, with glucose being the carbon source. In additionally, elemental nickel microspheres were synthesized on the basis of carbon microspheres with nickel as raw material and calcined at high temperature under nitrogen atmosphere. The prepared nickel/carbon (Ni/C) microspheres exhibited optimum morphology and the best photocatalytic performance when the mass ratio of glucose and nickel chloride hexahydrate was 4:1 and the preparation temperature was 500 degrees C, the catalytic decolorization effect of 50 mg of Ni/C microspheres could reach about 76% for 10 mg/L and 50 mL of methylene blue when illuminated for 4 h under daylight. Degradation efficiency increased to 80% at pH = 3. The composites exhibited an energy bandgap of 2.11 eV, which was beneficial for improving the photocatalytic activity. Furthermore, it was found that the active species in the reaction system are mainly center dot OH radicals.