Preparation and Performance of TiO2-ZnO/CNT Hetero-Nanostructures Applied to Photodegradation of Organic Dye

Water pollution by organic compounds is one of the major challenges faced by industries that use dyeing processes. Thus, some methods were developed for degrading dyes in wastewaters, including heterogeneous photocatalysis by semiconductor oxides. However, these oxides have limited photocatalytic activity due to the fast recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. The aim of this study is the use of a carbon nanotube (CNT) and TiO2-ZnO oxide junction from modified sol-gel method to promote the degradation of organic dye through the photocatalytic activity of these nanocomposites. TiO2-ZnO/CNT nanocomposites were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and photocatalytic decomposition of organic dyes. The results of photocatalysis show up to 60% the efficiency of the samples in the removal of dye.

有机化合物造成的水污染是使用染色工艺的行业面临的主要挑战之一。为此，科研人员开发了多种用于降解废水中染料的方法，其中包括基于半导体氧化物的异相光催化技术。然而，这类氧化物因光生电子-空穴对的快速复合，其光催化活性受到显著限制。本研究采用经改性溶胶-凝胶法制备的碳纳米管（carbon nanotube, CNT）与TiO₂-ZnO氧化物异质结所构成的纳米复合材料，借助其光催化活性以促进有机染料的降解。研究团队通过X射线衍射（X-ray diffraction, XRD）、透射电子显微镜（transmission electron microscope, TEM）、扫描电子显微镜（scanning electron microscope, SEM）对TiO₂-ZnO/CNT纳米复合材料进行了表征，并开展了有机染料的光催化分解实验。光催化实验结果显示，所制备样品对染料的去除效率最高可达60%。