Enhanced photocatalytic activity of Zn/Ti-LDH via hybridizing with C60

A novel and efficient photocatalyst was synthesized by surface hybridizing Zn/Ti-LDH (LDH) with C60 molecules. The structural characteristics of the resulting products (C60/LDH) were studied using a variety of characterization methods, and the photocatalytic activities of C60/LDH were tested using Orange II (OII) as a model contaminant under simulated solar irradiation. The FT-IR spectra showed that the characteristic mode of C60 at 1182   cm −1 split into two peaks at approximately 1240 and 1156   cm −1 ; in addition, the Raman spectra showed the band at 1422   cm −1 for C60 was upshifted to 1431   cm −1 with the increased doping amount of C60. In addition, the XPS spectra revealed that the peaks of O1s, Zn 2p, and Ti 2p were downshifted slightly. These results demonstrated that chemical interaction existed between C60 and LDH on C60/LDH. The UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectra confirmed that the absorbance of C60/LDH in visible-light region enhanced markedly, as compared with that of pristine LDH. The photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopic measurement revealed that the C60/LDH composites exhibited much weaker PL intensity than that of LDH sample, and the transient photocurrent ( I – V ) analysis showed that C60/LDH had higher photocurrent density than pristine LDH. The results of PL spectra and I–V analysis suggested that C60 molecule could effectively transfer the photoelectrons from the conduction band of LDH, leading to a lower recombination rate of the photo-induced electrons and holes. The photocatalytic experiments showed that C60/LDH had much higher photocatalytic activity in the decolorization of OII than that of pristine LDH, and 2%C60/LDH composite exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity. Furthermore, the stability test indicated that the decolorization efficiency of OII by 2%C60/LDH was still quite efficient after being used for 5 cycles.