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Photocatalytic and Electrocatalytic Properties of NGr-ZnO Hybrid Materials

N-doped graphene-ZnO hybrid materials with different N-doped graphene:ZnO wt% ratios (1:10; 1:20; 1:30) were prepared by a simple and inexpensive sol-gel method. The materials denoted NGr-ZnO-1 (1:10), NGr-ZnO-2 (1:20), and NGr-ZnO-3 (1:30) were investigated with advanced techniques and their morpho...

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Autores principales: Pogacean, Florina, Ştefan, Maria, Toloman, Dana, Popa, Adriana, Leostean, Cristian, Turza, Alexandru, Coros, Maria, Pana, Ovidiu, Pruneanu, Stela
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7466554/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32727153
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano10081473
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author Pogacean, Florina
Ştefan, Maria
Toloman, Dana
Popa, Adriana
Leostean, Cristian
Turza, Alexandru
Coros, Maria
Pana, Ovidiu
Pruneanu, Stela
author_facet Pogacean, Florina
Ştefan, Maria
Toloman, Dana
Popa, Adriana
Leostean, Cristian
Turza, Alexandru
Coros, Maria
Pana, Ovidiu
Pruneanu, Stela
author_sort Pogacean, Florina
collection PubMed
description N-doped graphene-ZnO hybrid materials with different N-doped graphene:ZnO wt% ratios (1:10; 1:20; 1:30) were prepared by a simple and inexpensive sol-gel method. The materials denoted NGr-ZnO-1 (1:10), NGr-ZnO-2 (1:20), and NGr-ZnO-3 (1:30) were investigated with advanced techniques and their morpho-structural, photocatalytic, and electrocatalytic properties were reported. Hence, pure N-doped graphene sample contains flakes with the size ranging from hundreds of nanometers to micrometers. In the case of all NGr-ZnO hybrid materials, the flakes appear heavily decorated with ZnO nanoparticles, having a cauliflower-like morphology. The X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) investigation of N-doped graphene sample revealed that it was formed by a mixture of graphene oxide, few-and multi-layer graphene. After the ZnO nanoparticles were attached to graphene, major diffraction peaks corresponding to crystalline planes of ZnO were seen. The qualitative and quantitative compositions of the samples were further evidenced by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In addition, UV photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) spectra allowed the determination of the ionization energy and valence band maxima. The energy band alignment of the hybrid materials was established by combining UV–Vis with UPS results. A high photocatalytic activity of NGr-ZnO samples against rhodamine B solution was observed. The associated reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation was monitored by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR)-spin trapping technique. In accordance with bands alignment and identification of radical species, the photocatalytic mechanism was elucidated.
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spelling pubmed-74665542020-09-14 Photocatalytic and Electrocatalytic Properties of NGr-ZnO Hybrid Materials Pogacean, Florina Ştefan, Maria Toloman, Dana Popa, Adriana Leostean, Cristian Turza, Alexandru Coros, Maria Pana, Ovidiu Pruneanu, Stela Nanomaterials (Basel) Article N-doped graphene-ZnO hybrid materials with different N-doped graphene:ZnO wt% ratios (1:10; 1:20; 1:30) were prepared by a simple and inexpensive sol-gel method. The materials denoted NGr-ZnO-1 (1:10), NGr-ZnO-2 (1:20), and NGr-ZnO-3 (1:30) were investigated with advanced techniques and their morpho-structural, photocatalytic, and electrocatalytic properties were reported. Hence, pure N-doped graphene sample contains flakes with the size ranging from hundreds of nanometers to micrometers. In the case of all NGr-ZnO hybrid materials, the flakes appear heavily decorated with ZnO nanoparticles, having a cauliflower-like morphology. The X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) investigation of N-doped graphene sample revealed that it was formed by a mixture of graphene oxide, few-and multi-layer graphene. After the ZnO nanoparticles were attached to graphene, major diffraction peaks corresponding to crystalline planes of ZnO were seen. The qualitative and quantitative compositions of the samples were further evidenced by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In addition, UV photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) spectra allowed the determination of the ionization energy and valence band maxima. The energy band alignment of the hybrid materials was established by combining UV–Vis with UPS results. A high photocatalytic activity of NGr-ZnO samples against rhodamine B solution was observed. The associated reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation was monitored by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR)-spin trapping technique. In accordance with bands alignment and identification of radical species, the photocatalytic mechanism was elucidated. MDPI 2020-07-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7466554/ /pubmed/32727153 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano10081473 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Pogacean, Florina
Ştefan, Maria
Toloman, Dana
Popa, Adriana
Leostean, Cristian
Turza, Alexandru
Coros, Maria
Pana, Ovidiu
Pruneanu, Stela
Photocatalytic and Electrocatalytic Properties of NGr-ZnO Hybrid Materials
title Photocatalytic and Electrocatalytic Properties of NGr-ZnO Hybrid Materials
title_full Photocatalytic and Electrocatalytic Properties of NGr-ZnO Hybrid Materials
title_fullStr Photocatalytic and Electrocatalytic Properties of NGr-ZnO Hybrid Materials
title_full_unstemmed Photocatalytic and Electrocatalytic Properties of NGr-ZnO Hybrid Materials
title_short Photocatalytic and Electrocatalytic Properties of NGr-ZnO Hybrid Materials
title_sort photocatalytic and electrocatalytic properties of ngr-zno hybrid materials
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7466554/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32727153
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano10081473
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