Spatial separation of photo-generated carriers and enhanced photocatalytic performance on ZrO2 catalysts via coupling with PPy

Abstract Herein, we established the ZrO2 nanoparticles into the polypyrrole (PPy) matrix and scientifically studied its effect on the structure, morphology, optical and photocatalytic properties of the obtained hybrid composites. XRD, Raman and TEM results demonstrate that Nano-ZrO2 showed good dispersion in PPy matrix and suppressed the formation of β-crystal as well as narrowing the crystallinity in the nanoscale region. Narrowing the optical band gap energy (3.26 eV-2.45 eV), luminescence property and effective prevention of electron-hole recombination process was examined by UV and PL results. The photocatalytic degradation efficiency was carried out for Reactive Black 31 (RB 31) and 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) dyes under visible light. The results illustrate that the optimal hybrid catalyst could reach 98% of removal efficiency towards 4-CP pollutant with visible light irradiation for 60 min. Moreover, the catalyst show high TOC efficiency (91 %) high apparent constant (0.9124 min-1), and good stability with multiple cycle experiments. This could be due to the photo-generated electron-hole pair tended to migrate to the surface of ZrO2/PPy hybrid matrix, resulting in superior separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers and great enhancement of photocatalytic activity.