Abstract
A new structure of honeycomb-like ZnO mesoporous nanowall arrays (MNWAs) with highly efficient photocatalytic activity was designed and successfully synthesized on Al foil by hydrothermal method. The nanowalls of ZnO-MNWAs have mesopores, which possess a large surface area. The visible light absorption of ZnO-MNWAs was efficiently stronger than ZnO nanowire, resulting in that the photocatalytic activity of ZnO-MNWAs, whose bandgap energy was 3.12 eV, was 5.97 times than that of ZnO nanowires in the degradation of methyl orange. Besides, Al foil acted as a good electron conductor which was beneficial to the separation of photo-induced electron-hole pairs. After modifying ZnO-MNWAs with a proper amount of Ag nanoparticles (NPs), photocatalytic activity could be further enhanced. The photocatalytic activity of ZnO-MNWAs with the optimal amount of Ag NPs was 9.08 times than that of ZnO nanowires and 1.52 times than that of pure ZnO-MNWAs.
Highlights
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, firstly, ZnO can be synthesized with new nanostructures[4, 11] to narrow energy bandgap or to offer large surface area
We have developed a new honeycomb-like ZnO mesoporous nanowall arrays (MNWAs) structure on Al foil substrate by simple hydrothermal method
A new honeycomb-like ZnO-MNWAs on Al foil was synthesized by low-cost hydrothermal method without template
Summary
Yimeng Feng[1], Guojing Wang[1], Jiecui Liao[1], Wei Li1, Chienhua Chen[1], Mingyang Li1,3 & Zhengcao Li2. A new structure of honeycomb-like ZnO mesoporous nanowall arrays (MNWAs) with highly efficient photocatalytic activity was designed and successfully synthesized on Al foil by hydrothermal method. Ordered structures of materials are mostly synthesized by photolithography[28] or with template-assisted[29, 30], and porous films are always synthesized by an electrodeposition process[31] Though these materials in recent works have excellent photocatalytic activities, including mesoporous TiO2 with CdS quantum dots[32], self-floating TiO2 foams with 3D macro-mesoporous architectures[33] and ZnO nanorod array with a mesoporous surface mediated by Cd2+ 34. The possible enhancement mechanism of photocatalytic activity was discussed based on the utilization of visible light and the separation mechanism of the electron-hole pairs
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