Influence of mass ratio and calcination temperature on physical and photoelectrochemical properties of ZnFe-layered double oxide/cobalt oxide heterojunction semiconductor for dye degradation applications--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Influence of mass ratio and calcination temperature on physical and photoelectrochemical properties of ZnFe-layered double oxide/cobalt oxide heterojunction semiconductor for dye degradation applications

Yufei Zhang ^a, Junjie Zheng ^a, Jiejie Nan ^a, Chengjie Gai ^a, Qian Shao ^a *, Vignesh Murugadoss ^{b c}, Srihari Maganti ^c, Nithesh Naik ^d, Hassan Algadi ^f, Mina Huang ^{b c}, Ben Bin Xu ^e *, Zhanhu Guo ^c *

a College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266590, China
b College of Materials Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China
c Integrated Composites Laboratory (ICL), Department of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, United States
d Department of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, 576104, Karnataka, India
e Mechanical and Construction Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK
f Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Najran University, Najran, 11001, Saudi Arabia

10.1016/j.partic.2022.05.010

Volume 74, March 2023, Pages 141-155

Received 13 January 2022, Revised 10 May 2022, Accepted 17 May 2022, Available online 7 June 2022, Version of Record 27 June 2022.

E-mail: shaoqian@sdust.edu.cn; ben.xu@northumbria.ac.uk; nanomaterials2000@gmail.com

Highlights

• ZnFe-LDO/Co₃O₄ was prepared by microwave hydrothermal and hydrothermal method.

• p-n heterojunction was obtained between ZnFe-LDO and Co₃O₄.

• ZnFe-LDO/Co₃O₄ heterojunction exhibited higher photoelectrocatalytic degradation.

• ZnFe-LDO/Co₃O₄ can be conveniently reused with a stable performance.

Abstract

A visible light-active photoelectrocatalyst, ZnFe-layered double oxide (LDO)/cobalt(II,III) oxide (Co₃O₄) composites were obtained by calcining the Co loaded ZnFe-layered double hydroxide (LDH) prepared by a hydrothermal and microwave hydrothermal method. The morphological studies revealed that the ZnFe-LDO/Co₃O₄ composites exhibited a flower-like structure comprising Co₃O₄ nanowires and ZnFe-LDO nanosheets. Further, when the mass ratio of Co(NO₃)₂·6H₂O/LDH was 1:1.8 and the calcination temperature was 550 °C, the ZnFe-LDO/Co₃O₄ composite exhibited 93.3% degradation efficiency for methylene blue (MB) at the applied voltage of 1.0 V under visible light after 3 h. Furthermore, the Mott-Schottky model experiments showed that the formation of a p-n heterojunction between ZnFe-LDO and Co₃O₄ could effectively inhibit the recombination of electrons and holes in the photoelectrocatalytic process. Meanwhile, free radical scavenging experiments showed that the active radicals of ⋅OH played an important role in the degradation of MB. Therefore, the photoelectrocatalytic effect of ZnFe-LDO/Co₃O₄ provides a simple and effective strategy for the removal of organic pollutants.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

文章导读