Synthesis of hybrid metal oxides with high degradation efficiency via a self-propagating process of metallic glasses

Abstract

Establishing hetero-junctions are widely regarded as an efficient strategy in the area of photocatalysis. In this work, the series of hybrid CuO/ZrO2/Y2O3 compounds were synthesized by self-propagating combustion of Cu60Zr40-xYx (x = 0, 5, 10, 15) metallic glasses. The combustion process is self-sustaining and can be efficiently regulated with the ratio of Zr/Y. The synthesized products are irregularly shaped and uniformly dispersed with a particle size of approximately 100 nm–5 μm. The presence of Y2O3 in the hybrid oxides stabilizes the ZrO2 phase and narrows the bandgap energy of as-synthesized powders. For the photocatalytic ability in degrading Methylene Blue (MB), it was demonstrated that the optimal addition of yttrium in the precursor is approximately 10 at% to the formation of best photocatalysts in the current work. Our findings not only provide the new approach to synthesize highly photocatalytic hybrid metal oxides, but also extend the functional applications of amorphous alloys.