Preparation of ZnO/Ag2O Nanofibers by Coaxial Electrospinning and Study of Their Photocatalytic Properties

ZnO/Ag2O/FTO coaxial nanofibers (FTO : Fluoride-doped tin oxide conductive glass) were prepared by sol-gel process , coaxial electrospinning and heat treatment using zinc acetate and silver acetylacetonate as precursors. The structure and surface morphology of the materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Raman spectroscopy, UV-Visible diffuse-reflective spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS). At the same time, taking the Xenon lamp as the visible light source for simulation and methylene blue as the degradation target, the photoelectrocatalytic activity of the prepared nanofibers was investigated. The results show that the coaxial ZnO/Ag2O nanofibers have a shell-like structure (ZnO shell, Ag2O core). Ag2O and ZnO form heterojunction and impurity levels, which not only reduces the band gap energy of ZnO, but also improves the utilization of visible light. Compared with pure ZnO, ZnO/Ag2O has stronger photoelectrocatalytic ability under visible light, and the amount of Ag2O has a great influence on the photoelectrocatalytic activity of coaxial fiber. Under the same photoelectric catalytic condition, ZnO/Ag2O-7 displayed the highest photoelectric activity , showing a high degradation rate of 93%, and its maximum kinetic constant is 1. 13x10( -2) min(-1). It is attributed to the lowest recombination rate of photogenerated electron-hole pairs.