Synthesis of cobalt-doped ZnO/rGO nanoparticles with visible-light photocatalytic activity through a cobalt-induced electrochemical method

ZnO is a semiconductor photocatalyst widely applied in photodegradation of organic pollutants and in photoelectric conversion. ZnO exhibits low photocatalytic activity due to poor absorption in the visible region. In this work, a novel cobalt-induced electrochemical growth method was developed to synthesize cobalt-doped ZnO/rGO nanoparticles in an aqueous solution at room temperature. Cobalt-doped ZnO/rGO nanoparticles exhibited wider visible-light absorption band ranging from 400 nm to 700 nm due to cobalt doping. The surface structure of ZnO formed by the cobalt-induced electrochemical method without other ions is suitable for photocatalytic reactions. The cobalt-doped ZnO/rGO nanoparticles were found to exhibit in photodegradation and photo-electrochemical measurements and exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible-light irradiation. (C) 2016 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved.