A facile solid-state heating method for preparation of poly(3,4-ethelenedioxythiophene)/ZnO nanocomposite and photocatal
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NANO EXPRESS
Open Access
A facile solid-state heating method for preparation of poly(3,4-ethelenedioxythiophene)/ZnO nanocomposite and photocatalytic activity Tursun Abdiryim1,2,3*, Ahmat Ali1,2, Ruxangul Jamal1,2, Yakupjan Osman1,2 and Yu Zhang1,2
Abstract Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/zinc oxide (PEDOT/ZnO) nanocomposites were prepared by a simple solid-state heating method, in which the content of ZnO was varied from 10 to 20 wt%. The structure and morphology of the composites were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorption spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The photocatalytic activities of the composites were investigated by the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye in aqueous medium under UV light and natural sunlight irradiation. The FTIR, UV-vis, and XRD results showed that the composites were successfully synthesized, and there was a strong interaction between PEDOT and nano-ZnO. The TEM results suggested that the composites were a mixture of shale-like PEDOT and less aggregated nano-ZnO. The photocatalytic activity results indicated that the incorporation of ZnO nanoparticles in composites can enhance the photocatalytic efficiency of the composites under both UV light and natural sunlight irradiation, and the highest photocatalytic efficiency under UV light (98.7%) and natural sunlight (96.6%) after 5 h occurred in the PEDOT/15wt%ZnO nanocomposite. Keywords: Solid-state heating method; Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene); Nano-ZnO; Composite; Photocatalyst
Background In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the development of polymer/inorganic nanohybrid materials [1-3]. Inorganic semiconductors such as ZnO, TiO2, MnO2, and ZrO2 have been extensively investigated as hybrids with polymers having synergetic or complementary properties and behavior for the fabrication of a variety of devices. Among these semiconductors, ZnO has promising applications in electrical engineering, catalysis, ultraviolet absorption, photodegradation of microorganisms, and optical and optoelectronic devices [4-8]. Although ZnO exhibits many advantages, there are still some disadvantages such as the lack of visible light response, low quantum yield, and lower photocatalytic activity. Also, it is important to shift the photoactivation region of ZnO particles toward visible wavelengths. * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Key Laboratory of Petroleum and Gas Fine Chemicals, Educational Ministry of China, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, People's Republic of China 2 Key Laboratory of Functional Polymers, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, People's Republic of China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Previous studies demonstrated that conducting polymers incorporated with ZnO could display reasonable catalytic activity under light illumination [9-12], and the delocalized conjugated structures of conductive polymers
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