TiO sub(2)-ZnO Composite Sphere Decorated with ZnO Clusters for Effective Charge Isolation in Photocatalysis

TiO sub(2) and ZnO are extensively used photocatalysts, but their activity needs improvement due to rapid charge recombination. Herein, we designed and synthesized a novel structure of a TiO sub(2)-ZnO composite sphere decorated with ZnO clusters by a one-pot solvethermal method. TEM and EDX charact...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Industrial & engineering chemistry research 2015-07, Vol.54 (29), p.7226-7232
Main Authors: Pan, Lun, Shen, Guo-Qiang, Zhang, Jing-Wen, Wei, Xiao-Chu, Wang, Li, Zou, Ji-Jun, Zhang, Xiangwen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Charge
Clusters
Decoration
Heterojunctions
Photocatalysis
Titanium dioxide
Transmission electron microscopy
Zinc oxide
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Summary:TiO sub(2) and ZnO are extensively used photocatalysts, but their activity needs improvement due to rapid charge recombination. Herein, we designed and synthesized a novel structure of a TiO sub(2)-ZnO composite sphere decorated with ZnO clusters by a one-pot solvethermal method. TEM and EDX characterizations show this structure contains a TiO sub(2) core, TiO sub(2)-ZnO composite (type II heterojunction) surface layer, and surface c-axis ZnO clusters. The in situ Au and PbO sub(2) photodeposition shows that the photoinduced electrons and holes are driven to ZnO clusters and TiO sub(2), respectively, attributed to the synergy of the type II heterojunction of TiO sub(2)-ZnO and high electron mobility of ZnO. The PL spectra confirm that such a structure is much more efficient in retarding the charge recombination than the sole TiO sub(2)-ZnO sphere. Importantly, this structure shows higher photoactivity in degradation of rhodamine B and isomerization of norbornadiene than pure TiO sub(2), ZnO, and TiO sub(2)-ZnO composite spheres.
ISSN:0888-5885
1520-5045
DOI:10.1021/acs.iecr.5b01471