Hydrothermal preparation and characterization of nanostructured CNTs/ZnFe₂O₄ composites for solar water splitting application

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• 作者：Haifeng Dang^a ; ^{cehfdang@163.com" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Yongfu Qiu^a ; Zhiyu Cheng^a ; Wei Yang^b ; Huayi Wu^c ; Hongbo Fan^a ; ^{fhb666666@126.com" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author} ; Xinfa Dong^b ; ^{cexfdong@scut.edu.cn" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author}
• 关键词：Solar ; ZnFe2O4 ; Carbon nanotubes ; Water splitting ; H2
• 刊名：Ceramics International
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：June 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：42
• 期：8
• 页码：10520-10525
• 全文大小：1538 K

文摘

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/ZnFe₂O₄ composites were fabricated hydrothermally via direct growth of ZnFe₂O₄ nanoparticles on the CNTs surface. The as-obtained samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectra (UV–vis DRS) techniques. The photocatalytic performance was evaluated by water splitting in methanol aqueous solution under high-pressure Hg lamp illumination. The effects of CNTs content in the composites on the solar H₂ generation activity were investigated comparatively. Compared with bare ZnFe₂O₄, the CNTs/ZnFe₂O₄ hybrid exhibited enhanced photocatalytic H₂ evolution activity. The photoluminescence emission spectra (PL) showed that the fluorescence of CNTs/ZnFe₂O₄ composites was quenched significantly in comparison with that of pristine ZnFe₂O₄, indicating that an enhanced charge carrier separation efficiency was achieved. Also, a probable mechanism of CNTs for the enhancement of H₂ evolution performance is proposed and discussed.