Architecting B-site Ni doped BaTiO₃ photocatalyst for environmental remediation: Enhanced photodegradation performance

Industrial effluent discharges containing organic contaminants, such as dye, fertilizer, or surfactant molecules, are threatening human and wildlife life and appear to be a severe challenge to human civilization. In the emerging field of photocatalysis, perovskite-based photocatalysts have drawn a lot of focus. The primary novelty of this work is the photocatalytic degradation of Ni-doped BaTiO3 using organic pollutants such as congo red dye, rhodamine-B dye, amoxicillin, and cephalexin, as well as the phytotoxicity assessment, which has never been reported before based on a review of the existing literature. In this work, Ni was introduced into a BaTiO3 perovskite with varying proportions at the B -site. By employing the sol-gel process, BaTixNi1-xO3 (x = 0.95, 0.75, 0.5) has been synthesized. The samples were optimized using efficient photocatalytic performance. Photocatalytic investigations revealed that BaTi0.75Ni0.25O3 has better photocatalytic activity than other Ni-doped BaTiO3 and pristine BaTiO3.The BaTi0.75Ni0.25O3 has been studied utilizing XRD, FTIR, UV-Vis, HRTEM, FESEM, and EIS. Several water -contaminating dyes, including Rhodamine-B (Rh-B) and Congo red (CR), as well as drugs like Amoxicillin (AMX) and Cephalexin (CPX), were broken down using the photocatalytic efficiency of the BaTi0.75Ni0.25O3. The photocatalytic treatment investigation also found that after 60 min, BaTi0.75Ni0.25O3 degraded up to 93.1%, 83.5%, 95.2%, and 92.7%, against AMX, CPX, Rh-B, and CR under visible light. It has been found that BaTi0.75Ni0.25O3 makes an acceptable, affordable photocatalyst for degradation processes. In phytotoxicity analysis, black mustard plant seeds in the untreated dye sample germinated less than those in the treated dye sample, indicating that the dye's toxicity has decreased.