Electrospinning of C-doped ZnO nanofibers with high visible-light photocatalytic activity

In this work, C-doped ZnO nanofibers were successfully fabricated by electrospinning the precursor solution consisting of polyacrylonitrile and zinc acetate composite through a facile single capillary, followed by thermal decomposition of the precursor fibers. The as-prepared nanofibers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, resonant Raman spectra, thermal gravimetric and differential thermal analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectra, respectively. The results indicated that C-doped ZnO nanofibers were fabricated when the calcination temperature of the precursor fibers reached to 450 °C. Photocatalytic tests displayed that the C-doped ZnO nanofibers possessed a much higher degradation rate of rhodamine B than the pure ZnO nanofibers under visible light. The enhanced photocatalytic activity could be attributed to the formation of the new energy states because of the carbon doping, which might reduce band gap of the ZnO. Moreover, the C-doped ZnO nanofibers could be easily recycled without the decrease in the photocatalytic activity due to their one-dimensional nanostructural property. And the self-doped and photocatalysis mechanisms of C-doped ZnO nanofibers have been discussed. C-doped ZnO nanofibers with high visible-light photocatalytic activity were fabricated by combining the electrospinning technique and thermal decomposition process.