Furfural-induced hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO@C gemel hexagonal microrods with enhanced photocatalytic activity and stability.
Here we report the synthesis of ZnO@C coaxial gemel hexagonal microrods with a thin hydrothermal carbon (HTC) layer on their surface by a facile one-step hydrothermal method with furfural as the carbon precursor. The furfural has a unique dual role, which not only induces the nucleation of ZnO in the initial stage of hydrothermal process, but also forms a thin HTC layer deposited on the ZnO surface. The thickness of the surface HTC layer increases with the hydrothermal time until 16 h under the conditions adopted in the present study. It has been found that the HTC layer has resulted in a significant improvement in the photocatalytic activities and photostabilities of the ZnO@C microrods for the UV-irradiated photodegradation of methylene blue solution. The mechanism involved in the process is proposed and discussed in terms of the photodegradation scheme and the properties of the ZnO@C microrods.
Carbon Research Laboratory, Liaoning Key Lab for Energy Materials and Chemical Engineering, State Key Lab of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology , Dalian 116024, China.
Peng
P
Zhang
Beibei
B
Li
Zongbin
Z
Zhao
Chang
C
Yu
Chao
C
Hu
Shengji
S
Wu
Jieshan
J
Qiu