TY - EJOU
AU - Teng, Dehong
AU - Zhang, Jing
AU - Luo, Xinzhi
AU - Jing, Fei
AU - Wang, Hengwei
AU - Chen, Jing
AU - Yang, Chao
AU - Zang, Shaohong
AU - Zhou, Yingtang
TI - Remarkably Enhanced Photodegradation of Organic Pollutants by NH2-UiO-66/ZnO Composite under Visible-Light Irradiation
T2 - Journal of Renewable Materials
PY - 2022
VL - 10
IS - 9
SN - 2164-6341
AB - Semiconductor photocatalysis is a novel highly efficient and low-cost method for removing organic pollutants
from wastewater. However, the photoreduction performance of semiconductors on organic pollutants is limited
due to the weak absorption of visible light caused by its wide band gap and low carrier utilization rate resulting
from severe electron-holes recombination. In the present study, flower-like NH2-UiO-66 (NU66)/ZnO nanocomposites were prepared using a facile method and exhibited high efficiency under visible light driven photocatalysts.
The X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmitor electron microscope (TEM),
and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to characterize the prepared samples, indicating that
NU66/ZnO was successfully synthesized. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared NU66/ZnO nanocomposites
was determined by measuring the photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) and malachite green (MG) under
visible-light irradiation. The optimal nanocomposite loading of 5% wt NU66 to NU66/ZnO demonstrated the
highest photocatalytic activity for the degradation of MB. The photocatalytic activity of a 5% NU66/ZnO composite was approximately 95-fold and 19-fold higher than that of NU66 and ZnO samples, respectively. The
enhanced activity of the 5% wt NU66/ZnO nanocomposite was further confirmed through photoelectrochemical
analysis. The formation of type II heterojunctions between the counterparts significantly suppressed recombination of the photogenerated charge carriers. Photocatalytic degradation experiments with different quenchers indicated that the effect of superoxide anion radicals (•O2−
) had a greater effect than the other scavengers.
Additionally, the improved photocatalytic mechanism underlying the activity of NU66/ZnO nanocomposites
was also explored. These findings establish a basis for development of MOF based heterojunction for photocatalytic organic pollution remediation.
KW - Photodegradation; heterojunction; MOF; NH2-UiO-66; ZnO
DO - 10.32604/jrm.2022.019209