Preparation and Enhanced Photocatalytic Properties of 3D Nanoarchitectural ZnO Hollow Spheres with Porous Shells

By using ginkgo leaves (GL) as template and Zn(CH3COO)2∙2H2O as Zn source, a series of ZnO samples with special morphology were prepared via a template-assisted two-steps method without adding any other additives. The degradation of the dye MB was used to evaluate the photocatalytic property of the...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lan Li, Lijuan Han, Yuqi Han, Zhiwang Yang, Bitao Su, Ziqiang Lei
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2018-09-01
Series:Nanomaterials
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/8/9/687
Description
Summary:By using ginkgo leaves (GL) as template and Zn(CH3COO)2∙2H2O as Zn source, a series of ZnO samples with special morphology were prepared via a template-assisted two-steps method without adding any other additives. The degradation of the dye MB was used to evaluate the photocatalytic property of the as-prepared samples. The results showed that when a proper amount of the template was used, a 3D nanoarchitectural ZnO hollow sphere with porous sphere shell assembled by well-distributed nanoparticles was obtained and its photocatalytic activity was much higher than that of ZnO nanoparticles. The special morphology of the sample was herein considered to be very helpful for highly efficient adsorption and activation of reactant molecules by multi-times adsorption-desorption-adsorption, efficient absorption of irradiation light by repeated absorption-reflection-absorption, and efficient separation of the photogenerated e−-h+ pairs. In addition, the formation of 3D structure of sample ZnO was also discussed.
ISSN:2079-4991