HUANG Chao, LI Mengyao, ZHAN Guanghui
(School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, Hainan, China)

Abstract: The purification of industrial dye wastewater is crucial for alleviating the water resource crisis, yet traditional semiconductor photocatalytic degradation methods involving metal oxides face issues of high cost and low efficiency. In stark contrast, MXenes, due to their high specific surface area and high conductivity, particularly the exfoliated flake-like MXenes, have superior charge transfer capabilities under illumination, opening new avenues for photocatalytic reactions. Notably, MXenes, such as Ti₃C₂Tx, exhibit significant improvements in catalytic efficiency and stability, as compared with the traditional ZnO. In this study, ZnO was combined with flake-like Ti₃C₂Tx to create a photocatalytic composite material with high specific surface area, thereby increasing active sites and significantly enhancing photocatalytic efficiency. Through hydrothermal synthesis, monolayer Ti₃C₂Tx was coated on nickel foam, on which ZnO nanorods were grown, producing a highly efficient photocatalytic degradation material. It is experimentally shown that the optimized sample exhibited RhB degradation rate of 97.7% in 100 min, while also effectively degrading tetracycline and 4-chlorophenol.
Key words: ZnO; MXenes; photocatalysis; heterostructure; rhodamine B