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Facile synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles for the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue

  • Original Paper: Sol-gel and hybrid materials for catalytic, photoelectrochemical and sensor applications
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Abstract

ZnO nanoparticle photocatalysts with a grain size range of 20–100 nm were prepared via a simple sol–gel method and characterized by X-ray powder diffractometry, scanning electron microscopy, gas adsorption, photoluminescence, UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. As-synthesized ZnO samples were highly crystallized with hexagonal wurtzite structure, and the grain size was between 20 and 100 nm and increased with the annealing temperature. It was found that the band gap of ZnO nanoparticles narrowed to visible light region, i.e., ~ 2.69 eV, which increased with the calcining temperature. The sample with a high concentration of oxygen vacancy exhibits excellent photocatalytic activity toward methylene blue (MB) degradation under solar light irradiation, at which the highest photodegradation with a react constant k value of 0.12 min−1 was achieved. In addition, MB solution was decomposed within 30 min, and after 9 cycles, the catalyst maintains more than 95% photodegradation. Moreover, the intermediate process experiment demonstrated that •O2 − and h+ are the main active intermediate species during the photocatalytic processes.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51302252) and the Fundamental Research Founds for National Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan, 430074, China

    Bao Dong, Xinxin Yu, Zhifang Dong, Xiang Yang & Yan Wu

  2. Engineering Research Center of Nano-Geo Materials of Ministry of Education China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Yan Wu

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  1. Bao Dong
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  2. Xinxin Yu
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  3. Zhifang Dong
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  4. Xiang Yang
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  5. Yan Wu
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Correspondence to Yan Wu.

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Dong, B., Yu, X., Dong, Z. et al. Facile synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles for the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 82, 167–176 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-016-4297-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-016-4297-4

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