Photocatalytic performance of yttrium-doped CNT-ZnO nanoflowers synthesized from hydrothermal method

Abstract We synthesized yttrium-doped CNT-ZnO (CNT-YZO) nanoparticles (NPs) and nanoflowers (NFs) from the hydrothermal method at 130 °C. The effect of Y3+-concentrations in nanostructured CNT-YZO was determined in terms of the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB). Microstructural analysis showed the hexagonal cubic structure of ZnO regardless of Y-concentration or the addition of CNTs during the nucleation and growth. The specific surface area, total pore volume, and mean pore diameter of typical CNT-YZO NFs were observed to be 36.109 m2/g, 0.162 cm3/g, and 17.932 nm, respectively. The photocatalytic degradation performance of CNT-YZO NFs improved due to increase reactive sites of the catalyst and reduced recombination of photo-induced carriers. The surface-area normalized first-order decomposition rates (r/m2) of CNT-YZO NFs showed the highest photocatalytic degradation (99%). The CNT-YZO has produced a new kind of material for the photocatalytic degradation under the irradiation of visible light using a solar simulator.