Ag/ZnO Heterojunction Decorated on Polypropylene as a Membrane for Photocatalytic Nitrogen Oxide Removal

Abstract

We synthesized a Ag/ZnO junction coated on a polypropylene (PP) membrane toward the removal of nitrogen oxide (NO) gas under visible light for an air-filtration machine in the future. The Ag/ZnO catalyst plays an important role in the separation of electron–hole pairs, leading to enhancing the photocatalytic NO removal through the localized surface plasmon resonance effect (LSPR) of Ag nanoparticles (NPs). In our investigation, the 3 wt % Ag NPs are the best composite sample, which is achieved the best content for the PP membrane in the NO removal. The Ag/ZnO heterojunction retains an excellent performance of 40.87% even after being used repetitively for 6 cycling tests. In addition, this Ag/ZnO/PP membrane has a good trend for the green product’s conversion in the NO reaction, which expressed a very low concentration of the NO2 yield. This is the first report on a Ag/ZnO/PP membrane for NO photocatalytic removal, to advance membrane technology for air purification and treatment in the near future.