Synthesis of nanocrystalline ZnO–NiO mixed metal oxide powder by homogeneous precipitation method

Nanocrystalline ZnO–NiO mixed metal oxide powder has been successfully prepared via a simple homogeneous precipitation method in short time. The nanocrystalline sample was obtained at low calcination temperature (350 °C). Specific surface area, crystallite size and optical band gap of the samples depend on calcination temperature. The synthesized samples were characterized by means of powder X-ray diffraction, thermal gravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, surface area measurements, scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray analysis, transmission electron microscopy and magnetic measurements. The synthesized powder samples have been tested for their catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol in the presence of sodium borohydride.