Synthesis, growth mechanism, and photocatalytic activity of Zinc oxide nanostructures: porous microparticles versus nonporous nanoparticles
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- 作者：Ahmed Barhoum ; Johannes Melcher ; Guy Van Assche…
- 刊名：Journal of Materials Science
- 出版年：2017
- 出版时间：March 2017
- 年：2017
- 卷：52
- 期：5
- 页码：2746-2762
- 全文大小：
- 刊物类别：Chemistry and Materials Science
- 刊物主题：Materials Science, general; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Polymer Sciences; Continuum Mechanics and Mechanics of Materials; Crystallography and Scattering Methods; Classical Mechanics;
- 出版者：Springer US
- ISSN：1573-4803
- 卷排序：52
文摘
A simple facile method, i.e., thermal decarbonation of ZnCO3 hydroxides, was used to prepare a series of pure ZnO photocatalysts with controlled crystallite sizes, particle sizes, and morphologies. The ZnCO3 precursor was synthesized by direct wet carbonation in the presence of growth-control additives, i.e., organic solvents, surfactants, and low molecular weight polymers. The thermal decarbonation allows for producing ZnO photocatalysts with sizes and shapes varying from 80 ± 20 nm nonporous rhombohedral nanoparticles to 5 ± 0.5 µm porous particles, for a constant crystallite size of 64 ± 3 nm. The porous ZnO particles (5 ± 0.5 µm) exhibit two times larger photocatalytic activity for methanol oxidation than the nonporous ZnO nanoparticles (~180 ± 30 nm). The reasons for the higher photocatalytic activity are further investigated in this work. A possible mechanism for the formation of ZnCO3 hydroxides and their transformation into porous microsized ZnO particles and nonporous nanoparticles are carefully discussed.