Synthesis and characterization of flower-like NiCoP/ZnO composites

Abstract

Flower-like NiCoP/ZnO composites were successfully synthesized via a simple solvothermal route. The as-prepared products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The material characterization showed that the composites were composed of hexagonal NiCoP microspheres and hexagonal wurtzite ZnO nanosheets. And it could be observed that ZnO nanosheets with width 200–500 nm and thickness 50 nm were assembled on the surface of NiCoP microspheres with a diameter of 1–2 μm. The BET surface areas for the as-obtained samples calculated from the linear part of the BET plot are about 24.450 m² g⁻¹ (NiCoP) and 88.412 m² g⁻¹ (NiCoP/ZnO). Furthermore, it is also found that the NiCoP/ZnO composites exhibited superior adsorption performance for some organic dyes, such as Congo red and malachite green, which may be related to the modification of ZnO nanosheets on the surfaces of NiCoP microspheres.