Porous ZnO/Carbon nanocomposites derived from metal organic frameworks for highly efficient photocatalytic applications - A correlational study

Abstract

Porous ZnO/C nanocomposites derived from 3 different Zinc based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) including MOF-5, MOF-74 and ZIF-8, were prepared at high temperature under water-steam atmosphere and their performances in photocatalytic H 2 evolution reaction (HER) and photodegradation of organic dye pollutants were evaluated. The formation mechanism from MOF precursors, the structural properties, morphologies, compositions and textural properties of the derived ZnO/C composites were fully investigated based on different characterization techniques and the correlation between the precursors and the derived composites was discussed. It is evident that MOF precursors determine the crystalline structures, doping profiles, thermal stabilities and metal oxide-carbon weight percentage ratios of the resulting composites. The correlation between MOFs and their derived nanocomposites indicates that different parameters play unalike roles in photocatalytic performances. The desired properties can be tuned by selecting appropriate MOF precursors. MOF-5 derived porous ZnO/C nanocomposite not only exhibits the highest photocatalytic dye degradation activity under visible light among these MOFs, but also outperforms those derived from MOF-74 and ZIF-8 up to 9 and 4 times in photocatalytic HER respectively. This study offers simple and environmentally friendly approaches to further develop new homogeneously dispersed functional metal oxide/carbon composites for various energy and environment-related applications.