Photocatalytic Activity of Nanocomposites of ZnO and Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Dye Degradation

Nanocomposites of ZnO and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were prepared via electrostatic interaction and in situ hydrothermal synthesis approaches. The ZnO/MWNTs nanocomposites display relatively higher photocatalytic activity than ZnO nanoparticles for the degradation of Rhodamine B. Therein, MWNTs, acting as a photogenerated electron acceptor, retard the recombination of photoinduced electron and hole. The experimental results show that the photocatalytic activity of the ZnO/MWNTs nanocomposites strongly depends on the synthetic route, which is probably due to the difference of surface states resulted from the different preparation processes.