ZnO nanorods have been grown on Si(001) wafer and fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrates for 1 and 4 h with the hydrothermal methods. The morphologies and photocatalytic activities of the ZnO nanorods were found to depend on the substrates. We investigated their properties by using spectroscopic analysis and demonstrated that the shape of nanorod and the ratios of external defects can ...

Semiconductor based photocatalytic process is of great potential for solving the fossil fuels depletion and environmental pollution. Loading cocatalysts for the modification of semiconductors could increase the separation efficiency of the photogenerated hole-electron pairs, enhance the light absorption ability of semiconductors, and thus obtain new composite photocatalysts with high activities...

Poly vinyl acetate (PVA)-based titania (TiO2)–carbon nanotube composite nanofibers (PVA-TCCNs) with various PVA-to-solvent ratios and PVA-based TiO2 composite nanofibers (PVA-TN) were synthesized using an electrospinning process, followed by thermal treatment. The photocatalytic activities of these nanofibers in the degradation of airborne monocyclic aromatics under visible-light irradiation we...

Currently, Degussa P25, with the typical mixed phases of anatase and rutile TiO2, is widely applied as the commercial photocatalysts. However, there are still some of obstacles for the P25 nanoparticles with totally high photocatalytic activities, especially for the catalytic stability due to their inevitable aggregation of the nanoparticles when used as the photocatalysts. In the present work,...

In this work, a series of novel flower-like Ag@AgCl/Bi₂O₂CO₃ were prepared by simple and feasible oil-in-water self-assembly processes. The phase structures of as-prepared samples were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF), etc. The char...

Textile industries discharge a large quantity of colored wastewater which is harmful to the ecosystem. In this study, two kinds of dyes were investigated: the mono azo Acid Orange 7 (AO7) and diazo Reactive Green 19 (RG19). The photocatalytic degradation of single (AO7, RG19) azo dye and binary (AO7 and RG19 mixture) azo dye aqueous solutions was photocatalyzed by commercial titanium dioxide (T...

A novel photocatalyst ZnBiErO₄ was firstly synthesized by solid-state reaction method and its structural and photocatalytic properties were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance. The results demonstrated that ZnBiErO₄ crystallized with tetragonal crystal structure with space group I41/A. The lattice parameter...

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/zinc oxide (PEDOT/ZnO) nanocomposites were prepared by a simple solid-state heating method, in which the content of ZnO was varied from 10 to 20 wt%. The structure and morphology of the composites were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorption spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission e...

Mixed phase TiO₂ nanoparticles with element doping by Sm and C were prepared via a facile sol-gel procedure. The UV-Vis light-diffuse reflectance spectroscopy analysis showed that the absorption region of co-doped TiO₂ was shifted to the visible-light region, which was attributed to incorporation of samarium and carbon into the TiO₂ lattice during high-temperature reaction. Samarium effectively...

An effective way for promoting photocatalytic activity of a semiconductor is deposition of noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) onto it. In this paper, we deposited Ag and Pd onto ZnO NPs to form ZnO/Ag and ZnO/Pd hybrid nanostructures. It was found that both Ag and Pd nanocomponents can greatly enhance the photocatalytic activity and phototoxicity of ZnO toward human skin cells. Using electron spin...