Eurasian Chemico-Technological Journal (Nov 2014)

Photocatalytic Activity of ZnO-Biochar Hybrid Composites

  • J. Matos,
  • R. Montana,
  • E. Rivero,
  • J. Velasco,
  • G. Ledezma

DOI
https://doi.org/10.18321/ectj16
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 4
pp. 293 – 297

Abstract

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Photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) was studied on ZnO in presence of home-made biochars prepared by different methods. MB photodegradation was performed under UV-visible irradiation to verify the scaling-up of ZnO-AC hybrid materials. It was verified that oxygenated surface groups on carbon were photochemically active in the photodegradation of MB and a synergy effect between both solids has been estimated from the first-order apparent rate-constants. This effect enhances the photoactivity of ZnO up to a factor about 2.5 and the difference in photoactivity in the binary materials was associated to the surface properties of AC.