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Solid-state synthesis of ZnO nanorods coupled with reduced graphene oxide for photocatalytic application

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Abstract

ZnO is an excellent semiconductor material for photocatalytic application. To overcome the photocorrosion of ZnO and improve its stability, nanorods (NRs) structured ZnO is prepared by an environment-friendly solid state synthesis method, and the composite of ZnO with different mass ratio of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) are obtained via a hydrothermal reaction. According to the photocatalytic results, 5% RGO composited with ZnO NRs degrades the methylene orange solution completely (98%) in 50 min under UV light irradiation, whereas bare ZnO NRs just degrade 40.9%. The transient photocurrent responses and electronical impedance spectroscopy tests are carried out to illustrate the mechanism of RGO in the nanocomposite for the enhancement of the photocatalytic performance. This composite of ZnO/RGO has demonstrated a great potential for high efficient and stable photocatalytic application.

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Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank the financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51502246), the Seed Foundation of Innovation and Creation for Graduate Students at Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) (Z2017193) and Undergraduate Student Innovation Training Program of NPU (201710699284).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710129, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Tingting Xu, Jinglu Hu & Lixin Chen

  2. Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, International Center for Dielectric Research, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education, School of Electronic & Information Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Yawei Yang, Wenxiu Que & Xingtian Yin

  3. Department of Applied Physics, School of Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710129, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Hongjing Wu

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  1. Tingting Xu
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Correspondence to Tingting Xu or Wenxiu Que.

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Xu, T., Hu, J., Yang, Y. et al. Solid-state synthesis of ZnO nanorods coupled with reduced graphene oxide for photocatalytic application. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 29, 4888–4894 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-017-8447-4

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