title: Design of a highly photocatalytically active ZnO/CuWO4 nanocomposite.
abstract: Here we report the synthesis, photocatalytic activity and mechanistic study of a novel charge separation heterostructure (HTS). A ZnO/CuWO4 HTS material is reported for the first time. The nanocomposite (NC) consist of CuWO4 nanoparticles (ca. 200-400nm) decorated with ZnO nanorods (ca. 30nm, 100nm length) and is shown to be a highly active photocatalyst for the decomposition of model contaminants including methyl orange (MO) and terephthalic acid (TPA). The ZnO/CuWO4 interface is shown to be key in controlling the enhanced activity of the composite material. Transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy studies demonstrate that photoinduced charge transfer across the ZnO/CuWO4 interface increases electron-hole lifetimes by 3 orders of magnitude, from <20μs in ZnO to 30ms in the ZnO/CuWO4 NC sample. Our findings show that through interface design efficient HTS materials can be prepared for a wide range of photocatalytic applications.
authors.affiliation: Materials Research Laboratory, University of Nova Gorica, 5000 Nova Gorica, Slovenia.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mavrič
authors.affiliation: Materials Research Laboratory, University of Nova Gorica, 5000 Nova Gorica, Slovenia; Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Valant
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy, The University of Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Forster
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy, The University of Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Cowan
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Environmental Research, University of Nova Gorica, 5000 Nova Gorica, Slovenia.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Lavrenčič
authors.affiliation: Materials Research Laboratory, University of Nova Gorica, 5000 Nova Gorica, Slovenia. Electronic address: saim.emin@ung.si.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Emin
keywords: Heterostructure; Methyl orange; Nanocomposite; Photocatalysis; Terephthalic acid