A facile synthesis of ZnO/CNT hierarchical microsphere composites with enhanced photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue

Abstract

Novel carbon nanotube (CNT) and hierarchical ZnO microsphere composites were prepared via a facile chemical deposition route and their photocatalytic performance in the degradation of methylene blue (MB) was investigated. The results indicate that the as-prepared ZnO/CNT hierarchical microsphere composite with 1.1 wt% CNT shows optimized photocatalytic activity. The photocatalytic performance improvement can be attributed to the triple effects of high surface area, enhanced light absorption and suppression of charge carrier recombination resulting from the interaction between ZnO and CNT.