Oxygen-rich TiO2 decorated with C-Dots: Highly efficient visible-light-responsive photocatalysts in degradations of different contaminants

Providing novel photocatalysts with high photocatalytic efficiency is of great significance. In the present work, hydrogen peroxide and carbon dots (C-Dots) were utilized to enhance the photocatalytic performance of TiO₂ under visible light. The fabricated TiO₂-peroxo/C-Dots photocatalysts were analyzed by XRD, HRTEM, SEM, EDX, BET, FT-IR, XPS, PL, UV–Vis DRS, EIS, and photocurrent density. Photocatalytic abilities of the nanocomposites were evaluated by photocatalytic removal of RhB, MO, MB, fuchsine, and Cr (VI) upon visible-light illumination. The results demonstrated that the binary nanocomposites exhibited remarkably enhanced photocatalytic activity compared with the TiO₂ and TiO₂-peroxo photocatalysts. The best photocatalytic performance was obtained using 0.75?mL of C-Dots, which was approximately 79.2, 17.1, 71.4, and 40.5 times higher than the pure TiO₂ for degradations of RhB, MO, MB, and fuchsine, respectively. Furthermore, the TiO₂-peroxo/C-Dots nanocomposites exhibited high stability in consecutive photocatalytic processes. Based on the results, the TiO₂-peroxo/C-Dots photocatalyst is expected to become a promising photocatalyst for practical applications in water purification.     

BiOBr and BiOCl decorated on TiO2 QDs: Impressively increased photocatalytic performance for the degradation of pollutants under visible light

BiOBr and BiOCl were decorated on TiO₂ QDs through n-p-p heterojunctions by a simple strategy and they were applied for degradation of three organic dyes upon visible illumination. The obtained photocatalysts were analyzed via XRD, FESEM, EDX, UV–vis DRS, PL, BET, TEM, HRTEM, FT-IR, EIS, XPS, and transient photocurrent measurements. The TiO₂ QDs/BiOBr/BiOCl nanocomposite with 20% wt. of BiOBr and 30% wt. of BiOCl displayed superior photoability in the degradation of methylene blue, rhodamine B, and fuchsine, which was almost 34.5, 176, and 78.7-times larger than TiO₂ and 27.8, 13.5, and 51.5-folds greater than TiO₂ QDs, respectively. The results show that the construction of intimate n-p-p heterojunctions between BiOBr, TiO₂ QDs, and BiOCl counterparts leads to enhanced visible-light harvesting and improved charge separation, resulted efficiently increased photocatalytic activity. The trapping results proved that h⁺, ^•O₂⁻, and OH^• species have considerable effects on the degradation reaction. We think that the improved efficiency of the ternary TiO₂ QDS/BiOBr/BiOCl photocatalyst is a splendid alternative for the removal of toxic contaminants from wastewater.     

海绵状Ag2O/ZnO复合光催化剂的制备及对甲醛的可见光降解

为克服纳米ZnO晶体可见光光催化活性低的缺点,以六水合硝酸锌、六亚甲基四胺和二水合草酸为原料,采用液相共沉淀-热分解法制备了六方纤锌矿型海绵状ZnO,然后在碱性条件下复合纳米Ag₂O颗粒,得到海绵状Ag₂O/ZnO复合光催化剂,并采用XRD、FTIR、紫外-可见漫反射（UV-Vis DRS）、FESEM、TEM和BET测量仪对其进行了表征;采用可见光光源,甲醛（HCHO）液体为光催化反应模型物,研究了不同摩尔比下Ag₂O/ZnO复合光催化剂的暗吸附及光催化性能。结果表明,随着Ag₂O相对含量的增加,HCHO暗吸附效果出现先增大后减小的趋势,当Ag₂O与ZnO摩尔比为1∶5时,HCHO去除率达到43.34%;另一方面,在可见光下Ag₂O/ZnO复合光催化剂对HCHO的降解率呈先增大后减小的趋势,其中Ag₂O与ZnO的摩尔比为1∶10时取得最佳降解效果,经过90 min的可见光光照后HCHO降解率达到78%,总的HCHO去除率为85%。      

Rapid,simple and low-cost fabrication of BiOBr ultrathin nanocrystals with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity

BiOBr ultrathin nanocrystals were prepared by a rapid, simple and low-cost route, and characterised by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analyses. The size of the resulting BiOBr ultrathin nanocrystals is about 60–100 nm in width and 15–20 nm in thickness. The photocatalytic activity of the samples was evaluated in terms of the degradation of RhB. Compared with BiOBr three-dimensional microspheres and P₂₅-TiO₂, the BiOBr ultrathin nanocrystals exhibited the best visible-light-induced photocatalytic activity.     

纳米ZnO可见光催化活性的改善及其降解性能

由于半导体ZnO禁带宽度较宽,因而其可见光催化活性较差.本文分别采用N掺杂、碳包覆、贵金属修饰以及半导体复合等方式来改善纳米ZnO的可见光催化活性,并以罗丹明B为降解污染物,对比了不同材料可见光催化降解有机污染物的效率.研究结果显示以氨水为氮源,通过水热法制备的氮掺杂N-ZnO光催化剂,相比于纯ZnO,对可见光吸收增强...     

Magnetite/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites: One step solvothermal synthesis and use as a novel platform for removal of dye pollutants

A simple one step solvothermal strategy using non-toxic and cost-effective precursors has been developed to prepare magnetite/reduced graphene oxide (MRGO) nanocomposites for removal of dye pollutants. Taking advantage of the combined benefits of graphene and magnetic nanoparticles, these MRGO nanocomposites exhibit excellent removal efficiency (over 91% for rhodamine B and over 94% for malachite green) and rapid separation from aqueous solution by an external magnetic field. Interestingly, the performance of the MRGO composites is strongly dependent on both the loading of Fe₃O₄ and the pH value. In addition, the adsorption behavior of this new adsorbent fits well with the Freundlich isotherm and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. In further applications, real samples—including industrial waste water and lake water—have been treated using the MRGO composites. All the results demonstrate that the MRGO composites are effective adsorbents for removal of dye pollutants and thus could provide a new platform for dye decontamination.      

Two-step preparation of Ag/tetrapod-like ZnO with photocatalytic activity by thermal evaporation and sputtering

A two-step method to synthesize metal–semiconductor heterostructure photocatalyst is presented in this research. Based on the tetrapod-like zinc oxide (T-ZnO) deposited by thermal evaporation, Ag/T-ZnO heterostructure is synthesized by RF magnetron sputtering method in this two-step preparation technique. The structure and the photocatalytic properties of the Ag/T-ZnO were studied in detail. The Ag/T-ZnO heterostructure exhibits better photocatalytic activity than that of the pure T-ZnO and there is an optimum sputtering time and sputtering power for the heterostructure's photocatalytic activity. The essential photocatalytic mechanism of this heterostructure have been discussed and the enhanced photocatalytic activity indicates the feasibility of this novel two-step method which may be developed to a promising synthesis technique.     

Hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO/C microflowers for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants under visible light irradiation: kinetics,mechanism and recyclability

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - We developed an improved hexagonal wurtzite ZnO and ZnO/C microflowers through the facile hydrothermal technique. The obtained...     

分级微/纳结构ZnO的制备及其光催化性能

分别采用溶剂热法和草酸盐法制得具有分级微/纳结构但形貌迥异的两种ZnO材料,以亚甲基蓝溶液(MB)作为目标降解物对其光催化性能进行评价。结果表明:溶剂热法所制得的ZnO呈花状微球形貌,由纳米片自组装而成;草酸盐法所制得的ZnO为微米棒状形貌,以纳米颗粒为基本单元发展而来。草酸盐法ZnO材料具有更为优异的光催化性能,其对亚甲基蓝溶液的降解反应速率常数是溶剂热法ZnO材料的7.65倍。活性自由基物种鉴定结果证实,两种ZnO材料在受到紫外光激发时均能产生·OH和·O₂^-活性自由基。两种ZnO样品光催化性能的差别源于能带结构不同所引起的活性自由基生成数量上的差异。较之溶剂热法ZnO,草酸盐法ZnO在受紫外光激发时产生的·OH和·O₂^-数量更多,且以强氧化能力的·OH为主,因而表现出更为优异的光催化性能。     

CoAl-Layered double hydroxides coupled with BiOCl as Z-Scheme heterostructure for enhanced photocatalytic removal of antibiotic pollutants under visible light

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - A novel BiOCl/CoAl-LDH direct Z-scheme photocatalyst was successfully designed and fabricated via pH adjustment and solvent thermal method....     

Hydrothermal synthesis of hierarchical rose-like Bi2WO6 microspheres with high photocatalytic activities under visible-light irradiation

Hierarchical rose-like Bi₂WO₆ photocatalyst was successfully synthesized through a simple hydrothermal route using thiourea and acetic acid as complexing agents. The as-synthesized product was determined as pure orthorhombic Bi₂WO₆ based on the results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. The photocatalyst had an average diameter of 2–3 μm and it was constructed by many nanoflakes. The surfaces of these nanoflakes were coarse and had many nanocrystals on them. The hierarchical rose-like structure was formed through a typical hierarchical assembly process with the synergistic action of acetic acid and thiourea. The photocatalyst showed excellent visible-light-driven photocatalytic performance, it could decompose rhodamine B(RhB) within 50 min. This excellent performance resulted from its special microstructure and the relatively large surface area.     

Self-assembly of the Ag deposited ZnO/carbon nanospheres: A resourceful photocatalyst for efficient photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye in water

Carbon nanospheres (CNSs) are synthesized by pyrolysis of benzene at 1000?°C. Various UV-light photocatalysts of ZnO/CNSs and Ag-ZnO/CNSs (AZCN) composites are synthesized on the surface of CNSs using a facile chemical precipitation method. Morphological and optical properties of the as-synthesized photocatalysts are characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive spectroscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy, photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy. Photocatalytic degradation efficiency of methylene blue dye is investigated to examine the photocatalytic activity of synthesized photocatalysts. It is found that as-synthesized ZnO/CNSs composite can degrade higher methylene blue dye (～85.6%) after 25?min of UV irradiation in comparison with that of CNSs. A prominent improvement in the photodegradation is attained by depositing metal (Ag) particles on the surface of ZnO/CNSs composite. AZCN composite displays the enhanced photocatalytic degradation performance (～95% after 15?min of UV light) in high concentration of methylene blue dye. Furthermore, stability performance is studied by recycling the AZCN composite photocatalyst. It is found that the photocatalytic activity of AZCN composite is only slightly decreased even after five cycles. Present work demonstrates that AZCN composite show a great potential in the treatment of organic pollutants for wastewater treatment.     

复合光催化剂CdS-Pt/TiO_2低温制备及可见光制氢性能

用不同方法制备了CdS-Pt/TiO2复合光催化剂。催化剂通过X射线衍射、比表面和紫外-可见漫反射吸收进行了表征。以可见光光解水制氢为探针反应,考察了CdS-Pt/TiO2复合光催化剂的可见光活性。结果表明制备方法极大地影响CdS-Pt/TiO2复合光催化剂的活性。低结晶度的CdS与Pt/TiO2复合形成的CdS-Pt/TiO2复合光催化剂具有最高的可见光活性,其光解水的量子效率为6.95%。     

微/纳米ZnO绒球的制备及光催化降解有机染料

以谷氨酸-氟硼酸(GluBF4)离子液体水溶液为反应介质,以物质的量比为1∶6的二水合醋酸锌[Zn(Ac)2·2H2O]和NaOH为原料,室温下制备前驱体,再微波辅助加热制备了微/纳米ZnO粉体,获得了单一形貌较高比表面积微/纳米ZnO绒球。利用扫描电镜(SEM)、X射线衍射(XRD)、比表面(BET)、能谱(EDS)等对产物进行了结构与性能表征。所得产物为六方晶系纤锌矿结构,绒球直径在1.6~3.0μm之间,粒径平均尺寸20.4nm,绒球比表面积为28.3m2/g,产物纯度高,收率95.6%。该纳米材料在自然光下表现出较高的光催化活性和形态稳定性。分别配制浓度为10mg/L的100mL甲基橙(methylorange,MO)、溴甲酚绿(bromocresolgreen,BG)水溶液,30mg纳米ZnO为光降解催化剂,太阳光激发下5h脱色率分别达74.3%和86.4%,重复利用5次,催化剂形貌不变、重量未发生变化。     

Facile synthesis of Ag/ZnO microstructures with enhanced photocatalytic activity

In this paper, we developed a facile low-temperature solution route to prepare radical-shaped ZnO microprisms and to deposit metal silver on the surface of ZnO to form Ag/ZnO microstructures. The samples were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Experimental results show that the deposition of metal Ag nanospecies can be achieved successfully by simply aging the solution at 75 °C, and the radical-shaped microstructures of ZnO are well maintained. The Ag/ZnO microstructures exhibit much lower PL emission intensity and much higher photocatalytic activity than those of radical-shaped ZnO microprisms.     

Creation of passivated Nb/N p-n co-doped ZnO nanoparticles and their enhanced photocatalytic performance under visible light illumination

Passivated niobium/nitrogen (Nb-N) p-n co-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles were created by a simple precipitation process with in-situ self-formed NaCl “cage” to confine the nanoparticle growth followed by the heat treatment in a flow of ammonia gas. Enhanced optical absorbance into the visible light region was observed in the Nb/N co-doped ZnO nanoparticle photocatalyst due to the Nb/N co-doping effect. It demonstrated a largely enhanced photocatalytic performance in the disinfection of Escherichia coli bacteria under visible light illumination, which could be attributed to the passivated co-doping of Nb-N to suppress the photogenerated charge carrier recombination on dopants. This robust approach for passivated p-n co-doping may also be applied to other material systems for a wide range of technical applications.     

Fabrication of highly efficient g-C3N4/ZnO/Fe2O3 ternary composite with enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - The development of an efficient and photostable heterostructured photocatalyst has attracted a great deal of attention for the degradation...     

1D hierarchical CdS NPs/NiO NFs heterostructures with enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation

One-dimensional (1D) hierarchically structured CdS nanoparticles (NPs)/NiO nanofibers (NFs) heterostructures with remarkable removal efficiency for diazo dye Congo red (CR) were fabricated by a stepwise synthesis process, which was involved a chemical bathing deposition combined with calcination, and a microwave-assisted wet chemical reaction. The crystal phases, morphologies, optical absorption properties, and adsorption/photocatalytic activity of as-prepared products were investigated by XRD, FESEM, TEM, high-resolution TEM (HRTEM), N₂ adsorption/desorption isotherms, UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and photoluminescence (PL) spectrum respectively. The experimental results indicated that binary satellite- core CdS NPs/NiO NFs heterojunctions are comprised of n-type CdS NPs with size of 10–30 nm decorated onto 1D p-type NiO NFs with diameter of 60–180 nm and length up to microns, which are self-assembled by nanoparticles with 30–100 nm in size. The possible formation mechanism for satellite-core structured CdS/NiO heterojunction is proposed. Interestingly, the decolorization efficiency over CdS/NiO heterostructures reached up to 91.2% in removal of aqueous CR at high concentration within 40 min under visible light irradiation, which was approximately 5.2 and 3.8 times as high as that of pure CdS nanocrystals (NCs) and the mixture of NiO NFs and CdS NCs. Furthermore, the possible photocatalytic mechanism was also investigated. The as-designed hybrid CdS NPs/NiO NFs heterostructures exhibited improved photocatalytic activity, which is attributed to the enhancement of the visible light adsorption, the efficient separation of photogenerated electrons and holes, and the high adsorption capacity towards CR molecules, thereby displaying superior visible- light-driven photodegradation of CR in high concentration. This work may provide a green engineering heterojunction technology to develop the advanced multifunctional nanocomposites for their applications in wastewater purification.     

Synthesis of Ce-doped GN/ZnO architectures with enhanced photocatalytic activity

The novel flower-like GN/ZnO architectures composed of curved cone are synthesized with hydrothermal method at 120?°C for 4?h. The GN/ZnO composite was doped with GN during preparation, the photocatalytic activity of GN/ZnO was evaluated by photodegradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under simulated visible light. The results showed that the photocatalytic activity of α-CNTs/SnO₂ for degradation of RhB was up to 90% within 50?min, which was much higher than that of pure compound. It was significantly found that the introduction of GN, which may suppressed the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs on the interface of SnO₂, leading to enhanced photocatalytic activity.