Abstract
In this work, well-designed zinc oxide-reduced graphene oxide (ZnO-rGO) nanorods (NRs) were synthesized by a hydrothermal method using electrospun ZnO-rGO seed layers. The ZnO-rGO seed layers were fabricated on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrates through calcined of electrospun nanofibers at 400 °C in the air for 1 h. The nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning different spinning voltages and a spinning solution containing zinc acetate, polyvinyl pyrrolidone, and 0.2 wt% rGO. From a detailed characterization using various analytical techniques, for instance, X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the dependence of the structure, morphology, and optical properties of the ZnO-rGO NRs was demonstrated. The photocatalytic activities of ZnO-rGO nanorods were evaluated through the degradation of dye methyl orange (MO). The results show that the change of spinning voltages and the coupling of rGO with ZnO improved photodecomposition efficiency as compared to pure ZnO. The highest photocatalytic efficiency was obtained for the ZnO-rGO NRs prepared with a spinning voltage of 40 kV.
Highlights
Wastewater contaminants that include organic dyes, detergents, and pesticides, which originate in various industrial fields such as textile, plastic, or agriculture, have become one of the most serious environmental problems in recent years [1,2]
The results indicate that zinc oxide-reduced graphene oxide (ZnO-reduced graphene oxide (rGO)) NRs synthesized by electrospinning, applying different spinning voltages and a spinning solution with 0.2 wt% rGO can improve the photocatalytic activity of single ZnO NRs
A series of ZnO and ZnO-rGO NRs were synthesized on ZnO and ZnO-rGO seed layers by a wet chemical method, and the seed layers were obtained by electrospinning using a precursor solution with 0.2 wt% rGO and applying different spinning voltages
Summary
Wastewater contaminants that include organic dyes, detergents, and pesticides, which originate in various industrial fields such as textile, plastic, or agriculture, have become one of the most serious environmental problems in recent years [1,2]. Various processes have been developed for the treatment of water contaminated with organic dyes, such as chemical oxidation, adsorption, ion-exchange, and photocatalytic treatments [3]. From these techniques, adsorption remains as the main technology used for these purposes [4,5,6]. Adsorption remains as the main technology used for these purposes [4,5,6] This treatment method is less effective to cleanse organic pollutants at very low concentrations [7]. Photocatalysis which is a promising, simple, and eco-friendly technology, has been attractive to treat low-concentration organic contaminants in recent years [8]. Various semiconductor photocatalysts, such as ZnO, TiO2 , CuO, Fe2 O3 , and WO3 , have demonstrated promising photocatalytic activity [9,10,11], highlighting zinc oxide due to its lower cost, non-toxicity, and size-tunable physicochemical properties [11,12]
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