Coupled porosity and heterojunction engineering: MOF-derived porous Co3O4 embedded on TiO2 nanotube arrays for water remediation

Jianing Dong; Xinnan Zhang; Xiuli Dong; Kim Hoong Ng; Zailai Xie; I-Wen Peter Chen; Yun Hau Ng; Jianying Huang; Yuekun Lai

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.129799

Coupled porosity and heterojunction engineering: MOF-derived porous Co₃O₄ embedded on TiO₂ nanotube arrays for water remediation

Chemosphere. 2021 Jul:274:129799. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.129799. Epub 2021 Jan 28.

Authors

Jianing Dong¹, Xinnan Zhang², Xiuli Dong³, Kim Hoong Ng⁴, Zailai Xie⁵, I-Wen Peter Chen⁶, Yun Hau Ng⁷, Jianying Huang³, Yuekun Lai⁸

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemical Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350116, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, PR China.
² National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, PR China.
³ College of Chemical Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350116, PR China.
⁴ College of Chemical Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350116, PR China; Department of Chemical Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City, 24301, Taiwan.
⁵ Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Energy Storage Materials, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350116, Fujian, China.
⁶ Department of Applied Science, National Taitung University, Taitung, 95092, Taiwan.
⁷ School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, PR China; Particles and Catalysis Research Group, School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
⁸ College of Chemical Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350116, PR China. Electronic address: yklai@fzu.edu.cn.

PMID: 33545593
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.129799

Abstract

Strive to develop the interaction and efficient co-catalysts is one of the vital projects in realizing hybrid photocatalytic systems for water remediation. In this work, p-type porous Co₃O₄ was embedded onto n-type vertical TiO₂ nanotube via an in-situ thermal etching method. ZIF-67 was employed as the structural template for Co₃O₄, which then augmented the light harvesting ability of the resultant photocatalyst. Such improvement was prompted by the light reflecting and directing attributes of porous Co₃O₄. Therefore, a remarkable MB removal rate was attained under sunlight irradiation, with superoxide radical being identified as the major reactive species. Photoelectric properties evaluation also verified that the p-n heterojunction developed herein exhibits outstanding charges separation ability with low impedance, particularly under light irradiation. This work highlights the idea on coupling both porous and p-n heterojunction engineering in augmenting photoactivity of catalyst, while offering insights in such structure-mediating approach.

Keywords: Porous Co(3)O(4) nanoparticles; Superoxide radical; TiO(2) nanotube; Water remediation; p-n heterojunction.

MeSH terms

Nanotubes*
Porosity
Titanium
Water*

Substances

Water
titanium dioxide
Titanium