Premium
Probing nanocolumnar silver nanoparticle/zinc oxide hierarchical assemblies with advanced surface plasmon resonance and their enhanced photocatalytic performance for formaldehyde removal
Author(s) -
Liu Shengnan,
Shan Yiwei,
Chen Lihui,
Boury Bruno,
Huang Liulian,
Xiao He
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
applied organometallic chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.53
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1099-0739
pISSN - 0268-2605
DOI - 10.1002/aoc.5209
Subject(s) - photodegradation , photocatalysis , surface plasmon resonance , mesoporous material , chemical engineering , nanoparticle , specific surface area , nanotechnology , formaldehyde , materials science , aqueous solution , chemistry , nanocomposite , catalysis , organic chemistry , engineering
Recent advances in photocatalysis focus on the development of materials with hierarchical structure and on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon exhibited by metal nanoparticles (NPs). In this work, both are combined in a material where size‐controllable Ag‐NPs are uniformly loaded onto the hierarchical microporous and mesoporous and nanocolumnar structures of ZnO, resulting in Ag‐NP/ZnO nanocomposites. The embedded Ag‐NPs slightly decrease the hydrophobicity of fibrous ZnO, improve its wettability, and increase the absorption of formaldehyde (H 2 CO) onto the photocatalyst, all of this resulting in excellent photodegradation of formaldehyde in aqueous solution. Besides, we found that Ag‐NPs with optimal size not only accelerate the charge transfer to the surface of ZnO, but also strengthen the SPR effect in the intercolumnar channels of fibrous ZnO particles combining with high concentration of photo‐generated radical species. The micro‐to‐mesoporous ZnO is like a nanoarray packed Ag‐NPs. With Ag‐NPs of diameter 2.5 < ϕ < 6.5 nm, ZnO exhibits the most superior photodegradation rate constant value of 0.0239 min −1 with total formaldehyde removal of 97%. This work presents a new feasible approach involving highly sophisticated Ag‐NP/ZnO architecture combining the SPR effect and hierarchically ordered structures, which results in high photocatalytic activity for formaldehyde photodegradation.