Improved photocatalytic performances for La-doped one-dimensional ZnO/MXene composites

Abstract

La-doped one-dimensional ZnO/MXene composites (La-1D-ZnO/MXene) were prepared by applying a microwave-assisted aqueous solution method. The extracted experimental results showed that ZnO nanoparticles had an olive-like morphology and MXene had a layer structure with nanoparticles uniformly distributed on their surface. The products were systematically characterized by using scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD, UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The photocatalytic degradation test indicated that the La-1D-ZnO/MXene showed good photocatalytic performance and about 94.8% methyl orange (MO) was degraded within 120 min. This behavior could be attributed to the synergistic effects of the increased active sites, enhanced visible light absorption, and accelerated charge transferring. Therefore, the proposed synthesized nanohybrids could be regarded as a promising candidate for the future development of novel catalytic devices.