High Piezo-photocatalytic Efficiency of CuS/ZnO Nanowires Using Both Solar and Mechanical Energy for Degrading Organic Dye

Abstract

High piezo-photocatalytic efficiency of degrading organic pollutants has been realized from CuS/ZnO nanowires using both solar and mechanical energy. CuS/ZnO heterostructured nanowire arrays are compactly/vertically aligned on stainless steel mesh by a simple two-step wet-chemical method. The mesh-supported nanocomposites can facilitate an efficient light harvesting due to the large surface area and can also be easily removed from the treated solution. Under both solar and ultrasonic irradiation, CuS/ZnO nanowires can rapidly degrade methylene blue (MB) in aqueous solution, and the recyclability is investigated. In this process, the ultrasonic assistance can greatly enhance the photocatalytic activity. Such a performance can be attributed to the coupling of the built-in electric field of heterostructures and the piezoelectric field of ZnO nanowires. The built-in electric field of the heterostructure can effectively separate the photogenerated electrons/holes and facilitate the carrier transportation. The CuS component can improve the visible light utilization. The piezoelectric field created by ZnO nanowires can further separate the photogenerated electrons/holes through driving them to migrate along opposite directions. The present results demonstrate a new water-pollution solution in green technologies for the environmental remediation at the industrial level.

Phytoextract-mediated synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles using aqueous leaves extract of Ipomoea pes-caprae (L).R.br revealing its biological properties and photocatalytic activity

“…The photocatalytic effects of ZnO are being exploited for use within self-cleaning paints, in environmental remediation applications and prophylactics with nanoparticle and colloidal suspensions demonstrating high photodegradation efficiency for organic compounds [24]. In photocatalytic reactions, the semiconducting materials can use sunlight energy to degrade organic pollutants into nontoxic compounds in aqueous solution, viewing considerable potentials for purifying dye-contaminated water as a green system [25]. Besides, the recent findings showed that metal nanoparticles were successfully used in the degradation of color dyes.…”

Piezotronic-effect-enhanced Ag2S/ZnO photocatalyst for organic dye degradation

“…14 Therefore, tremendous effort has been focused on reducing the recombination probability of photoexcited electron-hole pairs by constructing hybrid photocatalytic systems. 8,15,16 Different kinds of hybrid photocatalysts can inhibit the fast recombination of photoexcited electron-hole pairs through different mechanisms. For semiconductor/metal composite photocatalysts, photoexcited electrons can be transferred relatively easily from semiconductors to metal nanoparticles via Schottky contact due to the Fermi energy of the selected metals usually being lower than that of the semiconductors.…”

Facile Synthesis of Colored and Conducting CuSCN Composite Coated with CuS Nanoparticles

“…Several studies on CuS-based composite are reported [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. Yuan et al have synthesized CuS (nanoflower)/ rGo composite using ultrafast microwave-assisted hydrothermal method using Cu(NO 3 ) 2 and thiourea for lithium storage application [21].…”

“…Yu et al have synthesized CuS/ZnS nanocomposite hollow spheres with diameters of about 255 nm and shells composed of nanoparticles by an ion-exchange method using monodisperse ZnS solid spheres as a precursor [22]. Hong et al have synthesized CuS-coated ZnO rod by two-step dipping methods in the sodium sulfide and copper sulfate for piezo-photocatalytic application [23]. Bagheri et al have synthesized CuS-coated activated carbon by mixing of activated carbon in the mixture of copper(II) acetate and thioacetamide for the removal of ternary dyes [24].…”