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The Hazardous Origin of Photocatalytic Activity of ZnCr 2 O 4
Author(s) -
Poschmann Michael,
Schürmann Ulrich,
Bensch Wolfgang,
Kienle Lorenz
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
zeitschrift für anorganische und allgemeine chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.354
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1521-3749
pISSN - 0044-2313
DOI - 10.1002/zaac.201800072
Subject(s) - catalysis , stacking , photocatalysis , decomposition , thermal decomposition , materials science , degradation (telecommunications) , particle (ecology) , particle size , chemical engineering , chemistry , inorganic chemistry , organic chemistry , geology , computer science , telecommunications , oceanography , engineering
The ZnCr 2 O 4 catalysts are synthesized by thermal decomposition of (NH 4 ) 2 [Zn(NH 3 ) 2 (CrO 4 ) 2 ] and materials with high surface areas and particle sizes in the nano regime are obtained. A special structural feature of the materials are stacking faults with densities strongly depending on the synthesis temperature, i.e. the lower the temperature the larger the number of stacking faults. The catalyst prepared at the lowest decomposition temperature exhibiting the smallest particle size shows the highest catalytic activity in the photocatalytic degradation of y‐Eosin in a photo‐Fenton process. The results of different analytic methods demonstrate that the high catalytic activity is directly correlated with CrO 4 2– anions generated via photo‐oxidation of the catalyst. Therefore, ZnCr 2 O 4 cannot be regarded as an environmental friendly catalyst for advanced photocatalytic oxidation processes.