Nonhydrolytic Route for Synthesis of ZnO and Its Use as a Recyclable Photocatalyst

Abstract

A simple, convenient and versatile synthetic approach has been demonstrated for large-scale synthesis of zinc glycerolate microcrystals having preferential growth along the (100) axis. Glycerol has been used both as a ligand and as a solvent. This glycerolate precursor has subsequently been converted into the hexagonal phase of zinc oxide (ZnO) with wurtzite structure by calcining in air. A number of techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, solid-state 13 C NMR spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) measurements have been used to investigate the morphology, crystallinity, and structure of the products obtained before and after calcination. Furthermore, the room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) of the ZnO nanocrystals has also been investigated along with rhodamine B degradation. The latter has been used as a probe reaction to evaluate the photocatalytic performance of the ZnO nanoparticles for as many as three recycles.

Solvothermal Synthesis, Characterization, and Formation Mechanism of a Single‐Layer Anatase TiO2 Nanosheet with a Porous Structure

“…[24,25] Therefore, it could be concluded that, in the reaction system, glycerol served as a chelating ligand and coordinated in situ with TiOSO 4 to form the titanium glycerolate (TiGly) precursor complexes ( Figure S1), which is similar to previous reports. [26,27] After we calcined the precursors at 600°C in air for 3 h, the XRD diffraction peaks of the as-obtained products ( Figure 1B) were in good agreement with pure anatase TiO 2 (JCPDS 21-1272), revealing the phase transformation from TiGly to anatase TiO 2 . Meanwhile, TiOSO 4 ·2H 2 O can also directly convert to anatase TiO 2 after calcination [see curve (e) in Figure 1B], which is consistent with a previous report.…”

“…Pure glycerol shows two peaks at δ = 62.1 and 71.6 ppm for the two end carbon atoms and the lone middle carbon atom, respectively ( Figure 6B). [27] In the TiGly precursor, six distinguishable peaks are observed. The observed differences in the peak numbers and chemical shifts between the two samples suggest that the carbon atoms in the TiGly have significantly different local electronic environments compared with pure glycerol.…”

Ag/ZnO/graphene oxide heterostructure for the removal of rhodamine B by the synergistic adsorption–degradation effects

“…Among a variety of oxide-based semiconductor photocatalysts, ZnO has proven to be a suitable candidate for the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants in wastewater due to its chemical inertness, availability, cost-effectiveness and stability [8][9][10][11][12]. Although it offers significant opportunity in providing different functionalities, its direct wide band gap (3.37 eV) indicates that ZnO can absorb light only in the UV region.…”

Porous ZnO platelets via controlled thermal decomposition of zinc glycerolate

“…In such a case large crystals of zinc glycerolate (Zn(gly)) are obtained as the only product [22]. On the nanoscale, Zn(gly) has been just obtained with spherical particles via microemulsion approaches [23][24][25].…”