Facile Fabrication of ZnO/TiO₂ Heterogeneous Nanofibres and Their Photocatalytic Behaviour and Mechanism towards Rhodamine B

Abstract

In this study, novel titanium dioxide (TiO2) and zinc oxide (ZnO) hybrid photocatalysts in the form of nanofibres were fabricated by a facile method using electrospinning followed by a calcination process. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were employed to investigate the morphology and structure of the heterogeneous nanofibres. The photocatalytic performances were evaluated via the photodegradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under irradiation with UV light. Due to the low recombination rate of photo-induced charge carriers, the high utilization efficiency of UV light and the large contact area with the target molecules, the ZnO/TiO2 hybrid nanofibres exhibited high catalytic activity towards the Rhodamine B, and the amount of Zn(OAc)2 in the precursor of these nanofibres played an important role in determining the photo decomposition performance.