title: In situ assembly of well-dispersed Au nanoparticles on TiO2/ZnO nanofibers: a three-way synergistic heterostructure with enhanced photocatalytic activity.
abstract: The TiO(2)/ZnO nanofibers embedded by Au nanoparticles (TiO(2)/ZnO/Au NFs) were fabricated by combining the electrospinning technique (for TiO(2)/ZnO nanofibers) and an in situ reduction approach (for Au nanoparticles). X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, transmission electronmicroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy, were used to characterize the as-synthesized nanofibers. The results showed that small Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) were well dispersed on the TiO(2)/ZnO nanofibers (TiO(2)/ZnO NFs). And, the TiO(2)/ZnO/Au nanofibers showed high charge separation efficiency under ultraviolet excitation, as evidenced by photoluminescence spectra. The photocatalytic studies revealed that the TiO(2)/ZnO/Au NFs exhibited enhanced photocatalytic efficiency of photodegradation of Methyl orange (MO) and 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) compared with the pure TiO(2) nanofibers, ZnO nanofibers and TiO(2)/ZnO NFs under ultraviolet excitation, which might be attributed to the high separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs based on the photosynergistic effect among the three components of TiO(2), ZnO and Au. And, the TiO(2)/ZnO/Au NFs could be easily separated and recycled due to their one-dimensional nanostructural property.
authors.affiliation: Center for Advanced Optoelectronic Functional Materials Research and Key Laboratory of UV Light-Emitting Materials and Technology of Ministry of Education, Northeast Normal University, 5268 Renmin Street, Changchun 130024, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Changlu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.forename: Xinghua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Mingyi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yangyang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Yichun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D001391:Azo Compounds / Q000737:chemistry / Q000528:radiation effects; D002384:Catalysis; D004396:Coloring Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000528:radiation effects; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry*; D009596:Nitrophenols / Q000737:chemistry / Q000528:radiation effects; D010782:Photolysis; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry*; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods; D015034:Zinc Oxide / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D001391:Azo Compounds; D004396:Coloring Agents; D009596:Nitrophenols; C009495:titanium dioxide; C100258:methyl orange; D006046:Gold; D014025:Titanium; D015034:Zinc Oxide; C024836:4-nitrophenol