Preparation of ZnO/graphene heterojunction via high temperature and its photocatalytic property

This paper introduces a novel electrochemical route for preparing the ZnO/graphene heterojunction composite via high temperature. This process includes: (1) depositing the electrochemically reduced graphene oxide (ERGO) on ITO glass via cyclic voltammetry; (2) pulse plating a zinc (Zn) layer on the ERGO; (3) thermally treating the Zn/ERGO composite and “in situ” to obtain the ZnO/ERGO composite. SEM characterizations revealed that the Zinc Oxide (ZnO) particles were homogenously distributed on the surface of graphene sheets. XRD and Raman spectra found a ZnCO3 phase in the ZnO/ERGO composite, which demonstrated that when the Zn film transformed into ZnO particles during thermal treatment, Zn also reacted with graphene and formed a ZnCO3 intermediate layer at the interface between ZnO and ERGO via short-range diffusion. Compared with the heterojunction formed from regular chemical route, the present process provided a tight contact and combination between ZnO and ERGO, which eventually led to a heterojunction between ZnO and graphene sheets. This heterojunction exhibited great improvement for separation efficiency of photo-generate electron–hole pairs. Experimental results of ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) light catalysis demonstrated that the photocatalytic activity of the ZnO/ERGO composite had been greatly improved, and exhibited a value of three times higher than that of pure ZnO.