WO3纳米颗粒修饰ZnO纳米管的光催化性能

二甲四氯钠(MCPA-Na)是一种广泛用于牧场和果园的除草剂,但由于其生物降解性极低,已成为地下水和浅水中的主要污染物.研究发现,半导体可以有效地辅助降解转化危险化学品.ZnO纳米管因其中空结构和较大的比表面积,而在光催化降解有机物方面备受关注.但是,ZnO只能吸收紫外光,如果将其与窄带隙半导体进行复合,可以有效降低带隙,增强其在可见光区域的光吸收,表现出更好的光催化性能.WO3是一种具有稳定物理化学性质及耐光腐蚀窄带隙半导体.采用WO3修饰ZnO纳米管,能扩展ZnO吸收光的范围以及提高ZnO纳米管的耐光腐蚀性能.本文首先通过电化学合成的方法制备了ZnO纳米管,然后按照不同的W/Zn摩尔比将(NH4)6H2W12O40·XH2O滴加在纳米管表面,并在450 ℃下退火2 h制得ZnO-WO3纳米管阵列.研究了不同WO3含量的ZnO-WO3纳米管光催化降解MCPA-Na性能,并且通过X射线光电子能谱(XPS)、傅里叶红外光谱仪(FTIR)、紫外可见光谱(UV-Vis)和光致发光光谱(PL)等手段研究了复合WO3纳米颗粒后ZnO纳米管半导体光催化性能提高的原因.XPS结果表明,W元素在ZnO-WO3纳米管阵列中以W6+的形式存在.FTIR结果表明,复合WO3后的ZnO-WO3复合半导体上比纯ZnO纳米管表面具有更多的OH-基团.由于OH-可以捕获光生空穴,并转化为具有反应活性的●OH自由基,因此复合WO3能在一定程度上提高ZnO纳米管的光催化活性.UV-Vis结果表明,WO3的复合使得光谱发生明显红移,但随着WO3含量的增加,ZnO-WO3的吸光度明显增加.另外,PL结果表明,适当的复合WO3可以抑制光生电子-空穴的复合.这是因为W6+和晶格氧的相互作用产生了较高不饱和键和表面缺陷,而表面缺陷可以作为光生载流子的陷阱,促进了光生电子和空穴的分离,因而光催化性能提高.在模拟太阳光下研究了不同WO3含量的ZnO纳米管对光催化降解MCPA-Na溶液的性能.发现W/Zn摩尔比为3%的ZnO-WO3样品表现出最好的光催化活性,200 min内其降解率为98.5%.与纯ZnO纳米管相比,其光催化循环性能也有所提高.利用Mott-Schottky测试方法并结合UV-vis结果,我们计算得到不同WO3含量的ZnO-WO3复合半导体导带价带位置.由于WO3导带位置和价带位置都比ZnO的更高,WO3上产生的光生电子会向ZnO的导带移动,而ZnO光生空穴向WO3的价带移动,从而促使光生电子和空穴的分离,提高了光催化性能.但是如果WO3复合的量太大,则在ZnO纳米管上分散性不好,反而成为光生空穴和电子复合中心,导致其光催化活性降低.

High photocatalytic activities of zinc oxide nanotube arrays modified with tungsten trioxide nanoparticles

Well-aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanotube arrays loaded with tungsten trioxide (WO3) nanoparticles were synthesized by a process involving chemical bath deposition in combination with pyrolysis. The prepared ZnO–WO3composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive spectrometer, field emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and UV–vis diffuse re-flectance spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activities of the ZnO–WO3composite photocatalysts with different WO3contents for the degradation of the herbicide chlorinated phenoxyacetic acid (MCPA-Na) under simulated sunlight irradiation were systematically evaluated. It was found that the WO3content had a great effect on the photocatalytic activity of the ZnO–WO3composites. The composite with 3% WO3showed the highest photocatalytic activity, with a degradation rate of chlo-rinated phenoxyacetic acid of 98.5% after 200 min with 20 mg of photocatalyst. This photodegrada-tion rate was about twice that of the pristine ZnO nanotube array. The recombination of photogen-erated electrons and holes was increasingly suppressed with the addition of WO3to ZnO. The high relative content of defects on the surface of the ZnO–WO3composites was beneficial to their photo-catalytic activity in the degradation of chlorinated phenoxyacetic acid.