Abstract
Recently, engineering metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) into metal oxides by solid state thermal decomposition has attracted wide attention for photocatalytic applications. Here, a series of C-doped ZnO materials decorated with Au nanoparticles (Au/C-ZnO) were constructed via controlled pyrolysis of ZIF-8 adsorbing different amounts of HAuCl4·4H2O. In this pyrolysis process, ZIF-8 was transformed into C-doped ZnO according to the EDX and XPS analysis. Meanwhile, HAuCl4·4H2O was transformed into Au nanoparticles that were uniformly dispersed on the surface of C-ZnO as seen in TEM images. The photocatalytic activity of as-prepared catalysts was evaluated by the degradation of methyl orange under UV-vis light irradiation. It was found that the photocatalytic activity of Au/C-ZnO was better than C-ZnO and pure ZnO. Furthermore, Au/C-ZnO exhibited high photocatalytic stability. After three consecutive cycles, there was no noticeable deactivation in the reaction. This unusual photocatalytic activity was attributed to the synergistic effect of C-doping and Au NPs.
Highlights
ZnO has been extensively studied for the photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes due to its excellent optical, electrical, catalytic activity, chemical stability and environmental friendliness
Our work proposed alternative way to synthesized C doping metal oxides and noble metal decorated metal oxides
A series of Au nanoparticles decorated C-doped ZnO (C-ZnO) photocatalysts were prepared by following method: rstly, 0.5 g ZIF-8 powders were dispersed 20 ml ethanol followed by the addition of different volume HAuCl4$4H2O solution to make the ratio of Au and ZIF-8 as 0.2 wt%, 0.3 wt% and 0.4 wt%
Summary
ZnO has been extensively studied for the photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes due to its excellent optical, electrical, catalytic activity, chemical stability and environmental friendliness. Its rapid recombination rate of charge carriers limits its signi cant practical application in the photocatalysis eld.[1] Considerable efforts have been dedicated to improving the visible light response capacity and restrain recombination of photoinduced electron–hole pairs of single ZnO such as doping with metals and nonmetals, creating structural vacancies and combining with small-bandgap semiconductors.[2,3,4]. C-doped ZnO (C-ZnO) as an emerging visiblelight-responsive photocatalyst has attracted wide attention because C doping can narrow the band gap of ZnO by creating an intermediate energy level just above the valence band of ZnO.[5] Importantly, C doping can promote the separation of charge pairs.[6] C-doped ZnO can be prepared by situ synthesis or post-treatment. Our work proposed alternative way to synthesized C doping metal oxides and noble metal decorated metal oxides
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