Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity of ZnO/CuO Nanocomposites Synthesized by Hydrothermal Method

Abstract

In this paper, we have demonstrated a facile and low-cost synthesis of the ZnO/CuO nanocomposites by two-step hydrothermal methods. The photocatalytic properties of the as-synthesized ZnO/CuO nanocomposites have been evaluated by the photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) and methyleneorange (MO) under UV irradiation. Experimental results show that MB and MO can be degraded completely within 15 and 25 min by the ZnO/CuO nanocomposites and its photodegradation rate is 6 times faster than that of pure ZnO. This enhanced photocatalytic activity can be ascribed to the low recombination probability of photo-induced carriers due to the efficient charge transfer in the nanocomposites. The as-synthesized ZnO/CuO nanocomposite may be a promising candidate for dye photodegradation of wastewaters.

PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ZnO/CuO SEMICONDUCTOR AND PHOTOCATALYTIC ACTIVITY ON THE DECOLORIZATION OF DIRECT RED 80 AZODYE

“…Liu et al 25 varied the CuO proportion from 0.2 to 1.8 % and found a 90% degradation of acid black, when they used 1.0 % CuO. On the other hand, Chang et al 20 obtained the largest degradation for 20% CuO, when they varied from 5 to 20% CuO.…”

“…To prepare metal oxide composites, several techniques such as hydrothermal [19][20][21] , co-precipitation [22][23][24] , sol-gel 25 , solution combustion 26,27 , thermal decomposition 28 , and wet impregnation 29 have been used. So, this work aims to prepare a low cost mixed oxide of zinc and copper from their pure oxides without residues generation, characterize and measure the photocatalytic activity for the decolorization and degradation of the direct red 80 tetraazodye (DR80, Figure 1) and compare them with pure zinc oxide.…”

Hierarchical nanostructures of Au@ZnO: antibacterial and antibiofilm agent

“…But low photoenergy conversion efficiency of ZnO (probably because of their relatively low charge separation efficiency and fast recombination of charge carriers) (Tamaki et al 2009) forced many scientists to improve the photocatalytic efficiencies in ZnO by suppression of the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Such examples include SnO 2 /ZnO, ZnO/In 2 O 3 , Pt/ZnO, ZnO/ZnS, Bi 2 S 3 /ZnO, ZnO/ CdS , CdS/CdSe (Murugadoss 2012), ZnO/ CdS (Sahi and Chen 2013), CeF 3 /ZnO (Salazar et al 2011), ZnO/CdTe and ZnO/CdS (Shirakata 2013), ZnO/CdS/Cu(In, Ga)Se 2 (Chang et al 2013), ZnO/CuO (Tamez et al 2012), SnO 2 -ZnO , CdS/ZnO (Dongguang et al 2012), Ag/ZnO-C (Yu et al 2013), Pt-ZnO (Zhang et al 2012), and CdS/CdSe (Song et al 2009). …”

Determination of the half-life and the quantum yield of ZnO semiconductor photocatalyst in humic acid

“…ZnO more efficient, such as resistant to corrosion, has a are relatively low light energy (Eg = 3.40 eV), and is much cheaper than TiO 2 (6) Research photocatalyst ZnO has been made include studies in nano material of ZnO [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. The commercial ZnO powder was used economically and directly for application on water purification.…”