UV photoactivity of a flexible ZnO hybrid photocatalyst grown on a conductive cellulose-based substrate

Abstract

We report the successful fabrication of the flexible BC-MWCN-ZnO photocatalyst film by hydrothermal process. ZnO nanorod photocatalyst decorated on three substrate materials i.e., conductive cellulose-based (BC-MWCNT-ZnO), cellulose-based (BC-ZnO), and glass (G-ZnO) substrates were synthesized using a three-step process. We investigated the effect of MWCNT as a conductive element on the photodegradation and photoresponse properties of the photocatalyst materials. Photodegradation of the samples was evaluated using 10 µM Rhodamine-6G (Rh-6G) dye under 352 nm UV light. The results indicate that BC-MWCNT-ZnO shows the higher photodegradation of about 88.58% of rhodamine dye compared to the two photocatalytic materials i.e., G-ZnO (87.63%) and BC-ZnO (80.12%). Photoluminescence intensity of BC-MWCNT-ZnO nanostructure indicates the ability of MWCNTs to inhibit electron-hole pair recombination. BC-MWCNT-ZnO nanostructures have a faster photodegradation due to the combined nature of the structure in terms of adsorption and photodegradation. The sensitivity of all samples as UV photodetectors was recorded in response to the photocurrent signal under on-off UV illumination.