Abstract:
ZnO nanoparticles intercalated in different 2D compounds; MnO2, MoS2 and montmorillonite (ZnO-MnO2, ZnO-MoS2 and ZnO-MMT respectively) were prepared via exfoliation-flocculation or ion exchange process, followed by thermal treatment. It was found that the structure of the obtained composites was arranged in the house-ofcards structure with the homogeneous distribution of ZnO nanoparticles in all layered compounds, according to the XRD, SEM-EDX, HRTEM and XAS analyses. The particle size of ZnO nanoparticles defined by HRTEM in all composites was less than 5 nm. In addition, XAS results suggested the presence of short-range structural order in wurtzite ZnO crystalline. Among three composites, ZnO-MMT exhibited the highest photocatalytic efficiency over Rhodamine B solution. This photocatalytic enhancement was attributed to strong synergistic interaction of ZnO nanoparticles that were homogeneously embedded in the composite. However, the photocatalytic activity of ZnO-MnO2 and ZnO-MoS2 was still significantly low due to their improper band positions for photodegradation reaction. In addition, gold nanoparticles encapsulated by MoS2 (Au@MoS2) was successfully synthesized by a hydrothermal method. Whereas silver nanoparticles and gold-silver nanoshells could not be wrapped by MoS2 nanosheets because of their instability, resulting in strong aggregation products. On the other hand, gold seeds decorated on MoS2 (MoS2@Au) were also prepared via a seed-mediated growth method. The obtained Au@MoS2 and MoS2@Au would be investigated in their efficiency for H2 production in the future.
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