Ghader Hosseinzadeh
Abstract
In the current work, a novel ZnO-Cu2O heterojunction was synthesized from ZnO nanorods and Cu2O nanoparticles via hydrothermal route and was applied for the first time as a visible light active photocatalyst for decomposition of Paraoxon insecticide. Crystallinity, shape and size of particles, and optical ...
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In the current work, a novel ZnO-Cu2O heterojunction was synthesized from ZnO nanorods and Cu2O nanoparticles via hydrothermal route and was applied for the first time as a visible light active photocatalyst for decomposition of Paraoxon insecticide. Crystallinity, shape and size of particles, and optical properties of the synthesized heterojunction nanocomposites were evaluated by XRD, FESEM, EDS, Mott-Schottky, photocurrent analysis and UV-Visible spectroscopy analyses. Based on the obtained results the ZnO-Cu2O heterojunction nanocomposite was successfully synthesized and compared to pure ZnO semiconductor has the enhanced photocatalytic efficiency. The nanocomposite with 40% weight percentage of Cu2O has the best photocatalytical activity of 0.0201 min-1, which could be related to the improvement of optical properties (increasing of the visible light harvesting ability) and the reduction of the recombination of the photoinduced electron-hole pairs. In addition, according to the radical trapping tests and Mott-Schottky experiments, superoxide radical was determined as the main oxidizing species for photocatalytic degradation of Paraoxon, and a type II charge transfer process was proposed for the improved photocatalytic activity.
Ghader Hosseinzadeh
Abstract
In the current study, for the first time, an innovative hydrothermal method was proposed for the synthesis of TiO2/WO3 heterojunction nanocomposite from the combination of TiO2 nanorod, and WO3 nanoflakes. Because of environmental issues arising from the vast use of insecticides, this nanocomposite photocatalyst ...
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In the current study, for the first time, an innovative hydrothermal method was proposed for the synthesis of TiO2/WO3 heterojunction nanocomposite from the combination of TiO2 nanorod, and WO3 nanoflakes. Because of environmental issues arising from the vast use of insecticides, this nanocomposite photocatalyst was applied for the first time for photocatalytic degradation of Nitenpyram insecticide under visible light irradiation. The prepared nanocomposite was fully characterized by XRD, FESEM, DRS, PL, and Mott-Schottky analysis. The results revealed that the heterojunction sample had the best photocatalytic performance. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of this heterojunction is attributed to the decrease of the charge carrier’s recombination rate and enhanced visible light harvesting. Moreover, based on the radical trapping experiments and Mott-Schottky calculations, hydroxide radical was determined as the main active species for decomposition of Nitenpyram insecticide, and type II charge transfer mechanism was revealed to be responsible for the enhanced photocatalytic performance, which charge transfer between the two semiconductors results in the decreasing of the charge carrier’s recombination rate.