We synthesized zinc glycerolate (ZnGly) microstacks by treating ZnO with glycerol at 100°C under reflux. We observed that the morphology of the ZnO source has a pronounced effect on the appearance of the ZnGly product. In the absence of structure-directing effects the product ZnGly is obtained as a random heap of hexagonal prisms with an average diameter and thickness of ca. 2.5 µm and ca. 350 nm, respectively. However, bundles of nanorod-shaped ZnO obtained by the thermal decomposition of zinc oxalate nanorods could readily be transformed into 2-4 µm long zinc glyc-
We report on the layer-by-layer (LbL) formation of TiO(2)-MWNT-TiO(2) coatings on quartz with either trititanate derived TiO(2) nanowires or Degussa P25 as the photocatalytically active material. The optimized deposition sequence is discussed in detail and the morphology of the prepared coatings is analyzed by SEM and XRD. The heterogeneous photocatalytic performance of the coatings was tested in the methyl orange oxidation reaction. The apparent first order rate constant fell in the 0.01-0.20 h(-1) range over a 2.5 × 2.5 cm(2) film depending on the type and the thickness of the titanate coating. Building a multiwall carbon nanotube layer into the middle of the layer improved the photocatalytic activity for each material for all of the studied thicknesses. P25 based films performed 2-5 times better than TiO(2) nanowire films; however, the pores in the P25 based films were largely blocked because the isotropic P25 nanoparticles form closely packed layers by themselves and even more so with the comparably sized multiwall carbon nanotubes. Therefore, films derived from titanate nanowires appear to be more suitable for use as multifunctional, photocatalytically active filtration media.
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