Electrospun Highly Crystalline ZnO Nanofibers: Super‐Efficient and Stable Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production Activity

• Published in: ChemistrySelect (Weinheim) 2020-06, Vol.5 (22), p.6691-6696
• Main Authors: Zhou, Kaihe, Liu, Min, Ye, Xiaming, Zhu, Yanwei, Liu, Zhoubin, Yang, Yueping, Dan, Yangqing, Yuan, Yanfen, Hou, Huilin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: hydrogen; nanofibers; photocatalysis; stability; ZnO
• ISSN: 2365-6549; 2365-6549
• DOI: 10.1002/slct.202001500

ZnO has tremendous potential in photocatalysis, but only has moderate activity and poor stability because of the sluggish charge transfer and easy aggregation problem, respectively. In this work, ZnO photocatalyst with well‐defined one dimensional (1D) nanofiber structure was successfully fabricated for overcoming these defects. The results revealed that the ZnO nanofibers consist of compactly packed particles that form a cylinder type fiber in highly crystalline and high purity. The robust 1D nanostructure not only can suppress the aggregation of nanoparticles, but also facilitate the interparticle charge transfer. Besides, the mesoporous structure generated through the ZnO particle‐particle interconnection can promote the adsorption of reactants and desorption of products. Benefiting from these merits, the ZnO nanofibers photocatalyst presented superior higher and stable hydrogen production ability than that of nanoparticles counterpart. The photocatalytic hydrogen generation rate of the ZnO nanofibers was estimated to be 1031.8 μmol g−1 h−1, which was about 1.5 times higher than that of ZnO nanoparticles. Moreover, the ZnO nanofibers photocatalyst can maintain its 93.2 % H2‐production rate after five recycle experiments, whereas only 55.8 % for ZnO nanoparticles. This study provides an effective way to solve the energy problem by using solar energy. In this work, ZnO photocatalyst with well‐defined one dimensional nanofiber structure was successfully fabricated through via electrospinning strategy combined with the subsequent air calcination treatment. The obtained ZnO nanofibers consist of compactly packed particles with highly crystalline and high purity. The photocatalytic hydrogen evolution results revealed that the ZnO nanofibers photocatalyst showed super‐efficient and stable photocatalytic hydrogen production activity as compared that of the ZnO nanoparticles.