1. Enhanced photosensitization of zinc oxide nanorods using polyaniline for efficient photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical water splitting.
- Author
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Sharma, Surbhi, Singh, Simrjit, and Khare, Neeraj
- Subjects
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ZINC oxide , *POLYANILINES , *NANOROD synthesis , *PHOTOCATALYSTS , *PHOTOELECTROCHEMICAL etching , *PHOTODEGRADATION - Abstract
Polyaniline (PANI) coupled Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanocomposite has been synthesized by the chemisorption method and demonstrated its potential applications for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye and photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. A ∼7 fold enhancement in the photodegradation activity and ∼3 fold enhancement in the incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency is observed for PANI/ZnO nanocomposite as compared to bare ZnO nanorods. The observed enhancement in the photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical activity is attributed to the photosensitization effect of visible light responsive PANI and the formation of type-II heterojunction between ZnO and PANI leading to the efficient separation and faster transfer of photoinduced charge carriers at the interface. A possible mechanism for the enhanced photocatalytic activity and photoelectrochemical water splitting for PANI/ZnO nanocomposite has been proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
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