Abstract
We investigated the structural and optical properties of the hierarchically integrated zinc oxide (ZnO) branched submicrorods on carbon fibers (ZOCF) by scanning/transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The ZnO submicrorods were facilely synthesized by an electrochemical deposition method on polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fiber sheets used as a substrate. After coating the ZnO seed layer on the surface of the carbon fibers, ZnO submicrorods were densely grown on the nuclei sites of the seed layer. The prepared ZOCF samples exhibited high crystallinity and good PL properties. A feasibility for environmental application in Pb(II) removal from aqueous solutions was also studied. The ZOCF adsorbent exhibited an excellent maximum adsorption capacity of 245.07 mg g−1, which could be practically used in Pb(II) removal from water. These fabricated ZOCFs are potentially useful for multifunctional and environmental devices.
Highlights
Over the past years, zinc oxide (ZnO) nano- or microstructures have attracted great interest in a wide range of application fields such as electronic, photonic, photovoltaic, piezoelectric, and chemical sensing devices due to their unique properties [1,2,3,4,5]
The ZnO branched submicrorods on carbon fibers (ZOCF) fabrication procedure is shown in Figure 1: (i) the preparation of carbon fiber substrate, (ii) the ZnO seed-coated carbon fiber substrate, and (iii) the ZnO submicrorods on the seed/carbon fibers (i.e., ZOCF)
In order to grow the ZnO submicrorods on the carbon fibers, the seed-coated sample was dipped into the aqueous growth solution, and an external cathodic voltage of −3 V was applied between two electrodes for 40 min
Summary
ZnO nano- or microstructures have attracted great interest in a wide range of application fields such as electronic, photonic, photovoltaic, piezoelectric, and chemical sensing devices due to their unique properties [1,2,3,4,5]. Many efforts have been made to synthesize and integrate such ZnO nanostructures on specific substrates based on functional materials including graphene, paper fibers, and conductive fabric as well as flexible or foldable plastic substrates with less weight and cost-effective productivity because their physical and chemical properties can be improved [6,7,8,9]. The shape and size of ZnO nanostructures were readily tuned by controlling the external cathodic voltage and concentration of growth solution. For this reason, it would be desirable to integrate ZnO submicron structures on carbon fibers by the ED method
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