Preparation of ternary ZnO/Ag/cellulose and its enhanced photocatalytic degradation property on phenol and benzene in VOCs

Abstract

The ZnO/Ag/cellulose composite (ZAC) with excellent photocatalytic activity of degrading benzene and phenol in VOCs has been successfully synthesized. EDS, TEM, XPS and UV-vis analyses show that the ZAC is a ternary composite. It is composed of Ag, ZnO and cellulose, where the cellulose works as the substrate to anchor the other two components. The X-ray diffraction patterns find well-crystallized ZnO nanoparticles. Multiple PL peaks in the visible region measured for ZAC, imply rich defects on ZnO. It is observed that Ag nanoparticles are mainly attached on ZnO in the composite, which would raise the separation efficiency of photogenerated electrons and holes. Photocatalytic degradation shows that ZAC is able to decompose almost 100% phenol and 19% benzene in VOCs under UV light irradiation (6 W) which is almost no harm to human body. Due to the renewable cellulose, our ternary composite ZAC imparts low-cost, easily recycled and flexible merits, which might be applied in the indoor VOCs treatment.

Synthesis of Nano-Flakes Ag•ZnO•Activated Carbon Composite from Rice Husk as A Photocatalyst under Solar Light

“…The Ag•ZnO sample became tighter and denser after loading the silver, in Figure 1c Figure 1l. In addition, the crystal inter planar spacing was 0.23 nm (Figures 1m and n), which was attributed to the (111) planar spacing of Ag nanoparticle [30]. Figure 2 shows the wide-angle XRD diffraction of as-synthesized samples.…”

Surface and mechanical characterization of bionanocomposites for advanced applications: A review

“…32 Zou et al prepared ZnO/Ag/cellulose composite at different pH values for the photocatalytic degradation of benzene, phenol and their derivatives. 33 According to the morphological results, they reported that lower pH values resulted smaller ZnO NPs on cellulose surface. TEM and HRTEM images of the ZnO/Ag/cellulose composite prepared at pH 12 were recorded to provide better understanding of it structure.…”