Synthesis And The Photocatalystic Properties Of Zinc Oxide/ferrite Nanocomposites

The development of the industrial and agricultural make people's life more convenience,however this also causes serious environment pollution.To solve this problem,semiconductor photocatalysts have drawn much attention for its ability to transform the organic pollutants into harmless substances such as carbon dioxide and water.Ferrite nanoparticles is a kind of magnetic metal oxide nanoparticles.When combining with semiconductor materials,the nanocomposites photocatalysts not only have high photocatalytic activity,but also can be separated easily from the solution by using an external magnetic field.In addition,these compound semiconductor nanomaterials can expand the range of the light absorption which leads to the high photocatalytic performances under both UV and visible irradiation range to improve the solar energy utilization.In this thesie,we report the synthesis of flower-like nanocomposites based on ZnO nanorods and ferrite nanoparticles with high surface area and strong magnetism by a two-step hydrothermal method.The properties of those compound nanostructures were also studied.The main results are given as follows:1.ZnO nanorods/Fe₃O₄ nanoparticle photocatalysts were prepared by a microwave assisted route in an aqueous solution.These Fe₃O₄ NPs were the seeds for the ZnO NRs growth so that these nanorods ended with aggregation of Fe₃O₄ NPs.The growth mechanism was also investigated.These nanocomposites have strong photocatalyst ability to reduce RhB and can be easily separated by a magnet,exhibiting potential application as a renewable photocatalyst.2.Magnetic flower-like nanocomposites based on ZnO nanorod and nickel zinc ferrite?NZF?nanoparticle have been synthesized by a hydrothermal method.The magnetic cores of NZF nanoparticles with diameter of 30-50 nm were used as the nucleated centers of the following ZnO nanorods growth to form the scattered flower-like nanostructures.When used as photocatalyst,these hierarchical nanocomposites show high photocatalytic activity in degradation of organic contaminates under ultraviolet and visible light irradiation.Besides,these nanocomposites present sufficient magnetization which can be fast separated from the solution by a magnet.This paper shows a simple method to synthesize highly active photocatalysts under UV and visible light which can be easily recycled.