Remarkable Sunlight Photocatalytic Activity due to Synergetic Effect of ZnO with Cu

Abstract:

The ZnO nanorod was synthesized by the hydrothermal method, and Cu/ZnO nanorod was synthesized by modifying the prepared ZnO nanorod. The TEM was used to characterize the morphology and microstructure for ZnO and Cu/ZnO nanorod. The length of nanorod ZnO was about 700-800 nm, and the diameter about 40-50 nm. There was no change of ZnO in length and diameter when doped with Cu. The degradation of methylene blue (MB) in an aqueous solution under sunlight irradiation was carried out to evaluate the photocatalytic activity. The Cu/ZnO nanorod shows significantly higher photocatalytic activity (99.91%) than ZnO nanorod (89.66%) under sunlight irradiation. The degradation of MB accords with pseudo-first order kinetics, and the appear rate constants kapp of 7% Cu/ZnO nanorod was about 3 times higher than ZnO nanorod. The synergetic effect between ZnO nanorod and Cu on the photocatalytic degradation of MB exists clearly for all the nanorods, and the optimum synergetic effect was found at a weight ratio of 7 wt % (Cu/ZnO). It hoped our works could provide valuable information on the synthesis and application of ZnO-based heterogeneous photocatalysis.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 727)
• Pages: 388-394
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.727.388
• Online since: January 2017
• Authors: Wei Liang Wang, Chuan Xi Yang, Feng Zhang, Ping Li, Guan Wei Cui
• Keywords: Cu/ZnO Nanorod, Photocatalytic Activity, Synergetic Effect, ZnO Nanorod

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