Construction of the Core–Shell Tourmaline@ZnO Micro-nano Structure Towards the Highly Efficient Degradation of Organic Pollutants

Abstract

In this research, unique Tourmaline@ZnO micro-nano structure were constructed by surface-coating using uniform precipitation, with tourmaline particles as the inner core and nano-zinc oxide as the outer layer. In order to explore the optimized preparation conditions towards the highly efficient degradation of organic pollutant, the preparative experiments were implemented based on the two most crucial processing parameters: growth temperature and dosage of tourmaline. The structure, morphology and surface analysis of as-prepared core–shell composites were systemically characterized by x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements, then the optical and optoelectrical properties were tested by ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy and electrochemical performance. The photocatalysis performances were evaluated by selecting methyl orange as the model dye under the irradiation of a xenon lamp. In the case of a growth temperature of 100°C and tourmaline introduction amount of 3 wt.%, the correlated investigations confirmed that the hybrid tourmaline@nano-ZnO product achieved the most efficient degradation efficiency of 90% and the fastest reaction velocity of 0.8889 h−1 respectively within 2 h, with an enhancement of 9% and 36% compared to pure ZnO (the degradation rate was 81% and reaction rate was 0.6521 h−1). The tourmaline core was confirmed to make important contributions to the growth morphology and degradation performance of ZnO-based photocatalytic materials. The introduction of tourmaline will play a key role in the properties modification of metal oxide.