Synthesis and characterization of Ni-doped TiO2 activated carbon nanocomposite for the photocatalytic degradation of anthracene

•Ni-doped TiO2 supported on Activated carbon was prepared by a simple hydrothermal method.•The properties of Ni-TiO2@C nanocomposite were investigated by XRD, SEM-EDX, XPS, FT-IR, DRS, and PL.•Anthracene was photodegraded over Ni-TiO2@C nanocomposite under Visible light irradiation.•99.90% of anthracene was photodegraded within 50 mins using 0.05 g Ni-TiO2@C nanocomposite.•Anthracene was photo-catalytically degraded to end products (1E, 3Z)-hexa-1, 3, 5-trien-1-ol, and (1E, 3E)-penta-1, 3-dien-1-ol.