Fabrication of photocatalytic oxide semiconductor-based composites with diode-type interfaces for possible application in environmental cleaning

Date

2016

Abstract

Photocatalytic materials use light energy to produce radicals (e.g. OH radicals) from a series of reactions that can be used for environmental cleaning. The said radicals can degrade organic pollutants (in water and in air), and inhibit the growth (or kill) living organisms (e.g. bacteria, fungi). Common photocatalytic oxides are TiO2 and ZnO, however, due to their large band gap; they can be triggered by ultraviolet light and not by visible light. Common indoor lights and sunlight hitting the earth's surface are mostly visible light, thus it would be more practical if photocatalytic material are visible light-light triggered. Visible light-triggered photocatalytic materials are created by mixing p-type CuO and n-type ZnO to form composites with p-n heterojunctions (interfaces). Due to the low energy gap of CuO, the difference between the energy levels at the interface are expected to be low, thus has ability to respond with visible light. The creation of CuO-ZnO interfaces is viewed to be the primarily responsible for the visible light-active photocatalysis. The fabrications of such composite were achieved using two techniques: (1) Heterogeneous mixing technique and (2) Chemical precipitation technique. Heterogeneous mixing techniques involved creating ZnO and CuO interfaces by simple mixing of pre-fabricated oxides powders from series of chemical reactions using salt pre-cursors.

Language

English

Document Type

Article

Pages /Collation

54 leaves

En – AGROVOC descriptors

CATALYTIC ACTIVITY; OXIDES; COMPOSITE POPULATIONS; INTERFACE PHENOMENA; PROCESSING; COPPER; ZINC; OXIDES; POLLUTION CONTROL; ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION; POLLUTANTS

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