Abstract
To date, various methods have been used to synthesize ZnGa2O4 material to promote photodegradation performance. However, cocatalysts, which usually play a crucial role in the photocatalyst system, have not been studied extensively in photocatalytic degradation reactions. In this paper, ZnGa2O4 semiconducting material was synthesized by a traditional high-temperature solid-state reaction. The as-prepared powder was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and ultraviolet–visible diffused reflectance spectroscopy. The results indicate that the as-prepared sample is a highly crystallized granular sample with a bandgap of 4.44 eV and a uniform particle size distribution. Density functional theory (DFT) was utilized to calculate the electronic structure of ZnGa2O4. The valence bands and conduction bands were chiefly composed of O 2p atomic orbitals and the hybridization orbitals of Ga 4s4p and Zn4s4p, respectively. The photocatalytic performance was tested via the decomposition of rhodamine B (RhB) under the irradiation of ultraviolet light. Cu, Ag, Au, Ni, Pt, and Pd cocatalysts were loaded on the ZnGa2O4 photocatalyst by a photodeposition method. The relatively optimal cocatalyst of ZnGa2O4 in the photocatalytic degradation reaction is Au. Thereafter, the effect of loading different usage amounts of the Au cocatalyst for the photodegradation of the ZnGa2O4 photocatalyst was studied in detail. The experimental results displayed that the optimum photodegradation activity was confirmed with the 3 wt% Au/ZnGa2O4 sample, which was 14.1 times more than the unloaded photocatalyst. The maximum photocatalytic degradation ratio of RhB was 96.7%, with 180 min under ultraviolet light.
Highlights
ZnGa2 O4 with its spinel structure is an important P-block semiconducting material and has extensive application prospects in flat panel displays, vacuum fluorescent displays, day-blind detectors, fluorescent materials, and photocatalytic materials [1,2,3,4,5]
The photocatalytic performance was tested via the decomposition of rhodamine B (RhB) under the irradiation of ultraviolet light
In order to enhance the photocatalytic performance of ZnGa2 O4, the reported experimental results focus on utilizing a variety of synthesis methods to control the morphology of ZnGa2 O4 samples
Summary
ZnGa2 O4 with its spinel structure is an important P-block semiconducting material and has extensive application prospects in flat panel displays, vacuum fluorescent displays, day-blind detectors, fluorescent materials, and photocatalytic materials [1,2,3,4,5]. For the photodecomposition of various dyes, including methylene blue (MB), methyl orange, and rhodamine B (RhB), are utilized as a model pollutant to test the photocatalytic performance of ZnGa2 O4 photocatalyst. This is due to the large bandgap width possessed by ZnGa2 O4 , which is reported to be 4.5 eV in the Catalysts 2020, 10, 221; doi:10.3390/catal10020221 www.mdpi.com/journal/catalysts. A double-layer spherical powder material was obtained via a hydrothermal reaction, and its photocatalytic reduction performance on carbon dioxide was studied [8]. To comprehend the mechanism of the photocatalytic process of the reaction, the energy band structure of ZnGa2 O4 was calculated by the plane-wave pseudopotential method
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