Synthesis and characterization of CuO-NiO nanocomposite for dye degradation and electrochemical sensing of dopamine

In this study, CuO-NiO nanocomposite (NC) was synthesised via simple combustion method. The prepared NC was characterized by XRD, FTIR, UV-Visible, PL, EIS, SEM, TEM and EDAX. XRD data is matched with the standard JCPDS 5-661 and 78-429, which correspond to CuO and NiO respectively. FT-IR spectrum exhibits the existence of metal-oxygen bonding in CuO-NiO NC. Optical energy band gap of CuO-NiO NC was found to be 3.12 eV. PL spectrum excited at 329 nm shows an emission peak at 490 nm. The photodegradation of CuO-NiO NC on MB dye was examined under UV light irradiation. CuO-NiO NC acts as a good photocatalyst compared to individual metal oxide NP. At low concentrations of dopamine, CuO-NiO NC exhibits very good electrochemical sensing. The analytical profile of composite electrode shows long linear range, sensitivity and LOD of 1.0-6.0 µM−1L−1, 0.179µAµM−1cm−2, and 0.033µmol/L.