Facile fabrication of ZnO/N‐doped helical carbon nanotubes composites with enhanced photocatalytic activity toward organic pollutant degradation

Abstract

Novel ZnO/N-doped helical carbon nanotubes (ZnO/N-HCNTs) composites were successfully synthesized via a facile chemical precipitation approach at room temperature. The sample was well characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS). The photocatalytic activity was evaluated in the degradation of methylene blue (MB) aqueous solution under UV light irradiation. It is found that ZnO nanoparticles were highly and uniformly anchored on the surface and inner tubes of the N-HCNTs with size of about 5 nm, and significantly enhanced the photocatalytic activity compared to pure ZnO. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of ZnO/N-HCNTs composites can be ascribed to the integrative synergistic effect of effective interfacial hybridization between N-HCNTs and ZnO nanoparticles and the prolonged lifetime of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Moreover, the ZnO/N-HCNTs could be easily recycled without any obvious decrease in photocatalytic activity and could be promote their application in the area of environmental remediation.

Nanostructural catalyst: metallophthalocyanine and carbon nano-onion with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity towards organic pollutants

“…[1][2][3] Various systems have been studied and employed as photocatalysts in the past few decades. 4,5 Among these studied photocatalysts, carbon materials, [6][7][8] , organic derivatives or composites, [9][10][11][12][13] metal oxides, 14 inorganic nanoparticles and nanocrystals 15,16 and hybrid materials combining two or more components with different chemical natures have been used. 3,14,17,18 Oen, phthalocyanines (Pcs), derivatives of the aromatic tetraazaporphyrins, also appear among these systems.…”

Role of Chemical Doping in Large Deformation Behavior of Spiral Carbon-Based Nanostructures: Unraveling Geometry-Dependent Chemical Doping Effects

“…36 Like the other common applications of chemical doping in spiral structures, one may mention the applications in fuel cells, 50,51 superconductors, photoluminescence, 49,52,53 and photocatalysts as well as nanocomposites. 54 Despite various applications of chemical doping and significant studies on manipulating electrical, chemical, and magnetic properties of doped spiral carbon-based nanomaterials, to the best of author's knowledge, there is no study available in the literature to identify their mechanical properties. In this study, mechanical properties such as tensile strength, ultimate failure strain, different stages during the tensile test, toughness for various ranges of geometries, and chemical doping percentage for spiral carbon-based nanostructures have been identified using molecular dynamics simulations.…”

“…Recently, chemical doping of nitrogen and boron for CCNTs has been performed by experimental methods. − As a result of the considerable electrical properties of pristine CCNTs and constructive effects of chemical doping on them, the atomic-scale studies in this research field have made significant progress . Like the other common applications of chemical doping in spiral structures, one may mention the applications in fuel cells, , superconductors, photoluminescence, ,, and photocatalysts as well as nanocomposites …”

WO3 Quantum Dots Decorated GO/Mg‐doped ZnO Composites for Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity under Nature Sunlight

“…Recently, with the deterioration of environment and energy crisis, semiconductor photocatalytic oxidation has attracted much attention for a variety of field . Among semiconductor catalysts, zinc oxide (ZnO) presents great advantages owing to high optical activity, chemical stability, large exciton binding energy (60 meV) at room temperature, inexpensive, non‐toxicity and environment friendly, making it widely investigated and applied in the fields of solar cells, photocatalysis, sensors, filed‐effect transistors (FETs) and so on .…”