Glucose-mediated one-pot hydrothermal synthesis of hollow magnesium oxide-zinc oxide (MgO-ZnO) microspheres with enhanced natural sunlight photocatalytic activity

Glucose -mediated one-pot hydrothermal method has been utilized to synthesize hollow spherical MgO-ZnO (_xMgO-_(1-x)ZnO, x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6) microstructures which are highly efficient in high-energy ultraviolet (UV) region of natural sunlight. In this process, glucose formed roundish spheres, and simultaneously metal precursors were coated on that spheres during the hydrothermal reaction. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) supports the formation of highly crystalline wurtzite structure of MgO-ZnO for Mg loading less than 20%. Higher concentration of Mg produces wurtzite hexagonal ZnO and cubic MgO in the composites. The widening in band gap energy of synthesized MgO-ZnO microspheres compared to ZnO was analyzed by UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS) result. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis showed that with the increase in Mg loading, the specific surface area increases up to 14.27 times as compared to pristine ZnO. The synthesized catalysts were used as an efficient photocatalyst towards the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB), methylene blue (MB), and phenol under natural solar irradiation. Results illustrated that MB and RhB dye solutions were 100% degraded by 0.6 MgO-ZnO in 100 min and 150 min, respectively, whereas pure ZnO samples showed only 65% and 79% degradation. Also, for phenol solution, 0.6 MgO-ZnO showed enhanced degradation efficiency of 72% in 240 min in comparison with 58% degradation shown by ZnO. Additionally, the MgO-ZnO catalysts were stable and showed excellent degradation efficiency up to four consecutive cycles which open a new direction towards potential industrial applications. Hence, the novelty of the current work is to prepare hollow MgO-ZnO microspheres by a single-step hydrothermal process where separate carbon template preparation is not required and to utilize these hollow microspheres as a highly efficient photocatalyst by harnessing the high-energy UV fraction of natural sunlight.

Effect of Al and Mg Doping on Reducing Gases Detection of ZnO Nanoparticles

In this work, the main objective is to enhance the gas sensing capability through investigating the effect of Al and Mg doping on ZnO based sensors. ZnO, Mg1% doped ZnO, Al5% doped ZnO and (Al5%, Mg1%) co-doped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by a modified sol-gel method. The structural characterization showed the hexagonal crystalline structure of the prepared samples. Morphological characterizations confirmed the nanometric sizes of the NPs (27–57 nm) and elemental composition investigation proved the existence of Al and Mg with low concentrations. The optical characterization showed the high absorbance of the synthesized samples in the UV range. The gas sensing performances of the synthesized samples, prepared in the form of thick films, were investigated. Sensing tests demonstrated the high influence of the Al and Mg on the sensing performances towards H2 and CO gas, respectively. The 5A1MZO-based sensor exhibits high sensitivity and low detection limits to H2 (<2 ppm) and CO (<1 ppm). It showed a response around 70 (at 250 °C) towards 2000 ppm H2 and 2 (at 250 °C) towards CO.

Zn2+ stabilized Pd clusters with enhanced covalent metal-support interaction via the formation of Pd-Zn bonds to promote catalytic thermal stability

Pd-Based heterogeneous catalysts have been demonstrated to be efficient in numerous heterogeneous reactions. However, the effect of the support resulting in covalent metal-support interaction (CMSI) has not been researched sufficiently. In this work, a Lewis base is modulated over MgAl-LDH to investigate the support effects and it is further loaded with Pd clusters to research the metal-support interactions. MgAl-LDH with ultra-low Pd loading (0.0779%) shows CO conversion (55.0%) and dimethyl oxalate (DMO) selectivity (93.7%) for CO oxidative coupling to DMO, which was gradually deactivated after evaluation for 20 h. To promote the stability of Pd/MgAl-LDH, Zn2+ ions were introduced into the MgAl-LDH support to strengthen the CMSI by forming Pd-Zn bonds, which further increased the adsorption energy of the Pd clusters on ZnMgAl-LDH, and this was verified by X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) measurements and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The stability of the Pd/ZnMgAl-LDH catalyst could be maintained for at least 100 h. This work highlights that covalent metal-support interactions can be strengthened by forming new metal-metal bonds, which could be extended to other systems for the stabilization of noble metals over supports.

Influence of Mg Doping Levels on the Sensing Properties of SnO2 Films

This work presents the effect of magnesium (Mg) doping on the sensing properties of tin dioxide (SnO2) thin films. Mg-doped SnO2 films were prepared via a spray pyrolysis method using three doping concentrations (0.8 at.%, 1.2 at.%, and 1.6 at.%) and the sensing responses were obtained at a comparatively low operating temperature (160 °C) compared to other gas sensitive materials in the literature. The morphological, structural and chemical composition analysis of the doped films show local lattice disorders and a proportional decrease in the average crystallite size as the Mg-doping level increases. These results also indicate an excess of Mg (in the samples prepared with 1.6 at.% of magnesium) which causes the formation of a secondary magnesium oxide phase. The films are tested towards three volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including ethanol, acetone, and toluene. The gas sensing tests show an enhancement of the sensing properties to these vapors as the Mg-doping level rises. This improvement is particularly observed for ethanol and, thus, the gas sensing analysis is focused on this analyte. Results to 80 ppm of ethanol, for instance, show that the response of the 1.6 at.% Mg-doped SnO2 film is four times higher and 90 s faster than that of the 0.8 at.% Mg-doped SnO2 film. This enhancement is attributed to the Mg-incorporation into the SnO2 cell and to the formation of MgO within the film. These two factors maximize the electrical resistance change in the gas adsorption stage, and thus, raise ethanol sensitivity.

Controlling the size of a Zn-MOF through ligand exchange and pore-tailored ZnO assemblies for size-selective gas sensing

The nucleation and final size of Zn-MOF were modulated by ligand exchange, and the annealed ZnO assemblies exhibited size-selective sensing.

NH₄OH Treatment for an Optimum Morphological Trade-off to Hydrothermal Ga-Doped n-ZnO/p-Si Heterostructure Characteristics

Previous studies on Ga-doped ZnO nanorods (GZRs) have failed to address the change in GZR morphology with increased doping concentration. The morphology-change affects the GZR surface-to-volume ratio and the real essence of doping is not exploited for heterostructure optoelectronic characteristics. We present NH₄OH treatment to provide an optimum morphological trade-off to n-GZR/p-Si heterostructure characteristics. The GZRs were grown via one of the most eminent and facile hydrothermal method with an increase in Ga concentration from 1% to 5%. The supplementary OH⁻ ion concentration was effectively controlled by the addition of an optimum amount of NH₄OH to synchronize GZR aspect and surface-to-volume ratio. Hence, the probed results show only the effects of Ga-doping, rather than the changed morphology, on the optoelectronic characteristics of n-GZR/p-Si heterostructures. The doped nanostructures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence, Hall-effect measurement, and Keithley 2410 measurement systems. GZRs had identical morphology and dimensions with a typical wurtzite phase. As the GZR carrier concentration increased, the PL response showed a blue shift because of Burstein-Moss effect. Also, the heterostructure current levels increased linearly with doping concentration. We believe that the presented GZRs with optimized morphology have great potential for field-effect transistors, light-emitting diodes, ultraviolet sensors, and laser diodes.

Characterization of the fullerene end-functionalized ZnO nanotube: A computational study

The electronic and field emission properties of the fullerene end-functionalized zinc oxide nanotube (ZnONT) are investigated by density functional theory (DFT) to search for novel field emitter nano material. The interaction energies of ZnONT/fullerenes complexes gradually increase, with increasing the nanotube lengths which indicate that ZnONTs with higher lengths could improve the stability of the complexes. The band gaps of connected construction of fullerene molecules with ZnONTs gradually reduced by increasing the tube length, but were not sensitive to the tubes diameter. It is found that the ionization potentials of ZnONT/fullerenes complexes mainly decrease compared to that of pristine nanotube in the presence of 0, 0.002, 0.004[Formula: see text]a.u. electric field. The reduction of the ionization potential means the enhancement of the field emission properties of ZnONT/fullerenes complexes compared with simple ZnONT and fullerene molecules. The calculations show that the combination of ZnONT with fullerene molecules indeed improves the field emission by controlling the tube size and electric field strength.

Hierarchical mesoporous In2O3 with enhanced CO sensing and photocatalytic performance: distinct morphologies of In(OH)3 via self assembly coupled in situ solid-solid transformation

The present investigation details our interesting findings and insights into the evolution of exotic hierarchical superstructures of In(OH)3 under solvothermal conditions. Controlled variation of reaction parameters such as, reactant concentration, solvent system, crystal structure modifiers, water content along with temperature and time, yielded remarkable architectures. Diverse morphologies achieved for the first time includes (i) raspberry-like hollow spheres, (ii) nanosheet-assembled spheres, (iii) nanoparticle-assembled spheres, (iv) nanocube-assembled hollow spheres, (v) yolk-like spheres, (vi) solid spheres, (vii) nanosheets/flakes, and (viii) ultrafine nanosheets. A plausible mechanism is proposed based on the evidence gathered from a comprehensive analysis aided by electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction studies. Key stages of morphological evolution could be discerned and rationally correlated with nucleation, growth, oriented attachment, and Ostwald ripening mediated by dissolution-redeposition mechanism coupled with solid evacuation. Remarkably phase-pure bcc-In2O3 with retention of precursor morphology could be realized postcalcination at 400 °C, which underlines the advantage of this strategy. Two typical hierarchical structures (raspberry-like hollow spheres and nanoparticles assembled spheres) were investigated for their gas sensing and photocatalytic performances to highlight the advantages offered by nanostructuring. An impressive sensor response, Smax ≈ 7340 and 4055, respectively for the two structures along with appreciably fast response/recovery times over a wide concentration range and as low as 1 ppm exhibits the superior sensitivity toward carbon monoxide (CO). When compared to commercial In2O3, estimated rate constant indicates ∼3-4 times enhancement in photocatalytic activity of the substrates toward Rhodamine-B.

A new type of acetylene gas sensor based on a hollow heterostructure

A new type of acetylene gas sensor based on the hollow NiO/SnO₂ heterostructure synthesized by a two-step hydrothermal method followed by calcination was fabricated.