Abstract
Novel carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/titanium dioxide (TiO2)/zinc oxide (ZnO) composites have been successfully synthesized via a two-step solution method using titanyl sulfate as the titanium precursor. Its structural performances were researched by various characterization methods, such as X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS). The performance of the composites was tested by degrading rhodamine B (RhB) under UV-vis illumination and found to strongly rely on the content of ZnO. The experimental results showed that the CNT/TiO2/ZnO-90 wt % expressed more outstanding photocatalytic performance compared to the corresponding binary composites and the CNT/TiO2/ZnO-85 wt %, CNT/TiO2/ZnO-95 wt % materials. The improved photocatalytic activity was attributed to synergistic effect of CNT, TiO2 and ZnO, in which ZnO can absorb photons to produce electrons and holes, whereas TiO2 and CNT can reduce the electron-hole recombination.
Highlights
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which are characterized by large surface area, high electrical conductivity and chemical stability, have attracted considerable interest because of their potential applications in CNT-based composites, nanoelectronic devices, field emitters, photocatalyst and supercapacitor [1,2,3,4,5]
CNTs/TiO2/ZnO was synthesized by combining CNTs with TiO2 and ZnO using the facile two-step method
Facile routes, namely, chemical deposition solvothermal developed to two synthesize the ternary
Summary
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which are characterized by large surface area, high electrical conductivity and chemical stability, have attracted considerable interest because of their potential applications in CNT-based composites, nanoelectronic devices, field emitters, photocatalyst and supercapacitor [1,2,3,4,5]. In order to improve the separation efficiency of electron-hole pairs and photocatalytic effect, compound semiconductor materials have been prepared by combining the two semiconductors with different band gap, such as CdS-TiO2 [9], SnO2 -TiO2 [10], V2 O5 -TiO2 [11], and so on. This method has been proved feasible to enhance activity of TiO2.
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