Issue 92, 2016

Ultra-thin coating of g-C3N4 on an aligned ZnO nanorod film for rapid charge separation and improved photodegradation performance

Abstract

Type II heterogeneous films with one dimensional (1D) zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods coated with a graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) layer (1D ZnO/gC3N4) were fabricated by a simple reflux and thermal vapor condensation process. The grown 1D ZnO/gC3N4 films were used to degrade methylene blue (MB) dye under visible-light irradiation. Additionally, photoelectrochemical (PEC) measurements were conducted to explore charge separation and transportation processes. The fabricated films had a photocurrent density of 0.12 mA cm−2, which is 3.7-times higher than that of bare ZnO nanorods, and had good stability over 5 h. Moreover, the photocatalytic activities of ZnO with the g-C3N4 films performed well over multiple cycles without requiring a complex washing process for the photocatalytic recovery step. The improved performance stemmed from direct coating of an ultra-thin g-C3N4 layer (<10 nm thick) over ZnO nanorods, which induced high optical absorbance in the visible range, effective charge separation and transportation and low interfacial charge transfer resistance. A photodegradation mechanism was proposed based on the generation of OH˙ and hole radicals during MB dye degradation; these radicals were verified using tert-butanol and EDTA-2Na scavengers. The fabricated core–shell films are very promising components for PEC devices for water purification applications.

Graphical abstract: Ultra-thin coating of g-C3N4 on an aligned ZnO nanorod film for rapid charge separation and improved photodegradation performance

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Jun 2016
Accepted
09 Sep 2016
First published
14 Sep 2016

RSC Adv., 2016,6, 89944-89952

Author version available

Ultra-thin coating of g-C3N4 on an aligned ZnO nanorod film for rapid charge separation and improved photodegradation performance

T. J. Park, R. C. Pawar, S. Kang and C. S. Lee, RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 89944 DOI: 10.1039/C6RA16300A

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