Fabrication of Fe/ZnO Composite Nanosheets by Nanofibrillated Cellulose as Soft Template and Photocatalytic Degradation for Tetracycline

In this study, Fe/ZnO composite nanosheets were successfully prepared by hydrothermal method using nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) as a soft template. The crystalline and morphology structure of the samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET analysis, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Transmission electron microscope (TEM). Fe doping not only fabricated ZnO from square to strip shape, but also brought larger surface area and pore volume, resulting 59.7% removal of tetracycline by adsorption action. UV–Vis absorption test, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) have shown that iron had successfully embedded into the ZnO nanosheets resulting in red-shift of absorption wavelength. Fe/ZnO nanocomposites had about 90% photodegradation for tetracycline after two hours’ UV-irradiation.