Abstract
Microwave hydrothermal synthesis, using an experimental 23 factorial design, was used to produce tunable ZnO nano- and microstructures, and their potential as photocatalysts was explored. Photocatalytic reactions were conducted in a microreactor batch system under UV and visible light irradiation, while monitoring methylene blue degradation, as a model system. The variables considered in the microwave reactor to produce ZnO nano- or microstructures, were time, NaOH concentration and synthesis temperature. It was found that, specific surface area and volume/surface area ratio were affected as a consequence of the synthesis conditions. In the second stage, the samples were plasma treated in a nitrogen atmosphere, with the purpose of introducing nitrogen into the ZnO crystalline structure. The central idea is to induce changes in the material structure as well as in its optical absorption, to make the plasma-treated material useful as photocatalyst in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Pristine ZnO and nitrogen-doped ZnO compounds were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), specific surface area (BET), XPS, and UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The results show that the methodology presented in this work is effective in tailoring the specific surface area of the ZnO compounds and incorporation of nitrogen into their structure, factors which in turn, affect its photocatalytic behavior.
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Acknowledgements
R. Rangel acknowledges CIC-UMSNH under project 2017. R. Gutiérrez acknowledges a postdoctoral fellowship from Conacyt. P. Quintana acknowledges financial support provided through projects FOMIX-YUC No. 108160 and LANNBIO 123913 CONACyT. Authors wish to thank the technical help provided by D. Aguilar (DRX), W. Cauich (XPS), D. Huerta (SEM), J. Bante, B. Heredia and D. Macías for their support to obtain the reflectance measurements. R. Rangel acknowledges the support of the Red de Energía Solar.
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Rangel, R., Cedeño, V., Ramos-Corona, A. et al. Tailoring surface and photocatalytic properties of ZnO and nitrogen-doped ZnO nanostructures using microwave-assisted facile hydrothermal synthesis. Appl. Phys. A 123, 552 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-017-1137-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-017-1137-5