Hydrothermal Microwave Synthesis of Co3O4/In2O3 Nanostructures for Photoelectrocatalytic Reduction of Cr(VI)

JieJie Nan, Sijia Guo, Dalal Alhashmialameer, Qingming He, Yinuo Meng, Ruixiang Ge, Salah M. El-Bahy, Nithesh Naik, Vignesh Murugadoss, Mina Huang, Ben Bin Xu, Qian Shao, Zhanhu Guo

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Abstract

Co3O4/In2O3 nanocomposites were prepared via a microwave-hydrothermal method and directly used as photoanodes for the photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) process to reduce Cr(VI). The as-prepared Co3O4/In2O3 composites show a rod-like structure, which is composed of nanoparticles. The PEC experiments indicated that after 120 min of irradiation with 0.7 V bias voltage and visible light, the Cr(VI) reduction efficiency of Co3O4/In2O3 composites in aqueous solution was 100%, which was superior to the samples prepared by other methods. Moreover, the Co3O4/In2O3 composite still had a high catalytic activity after five runs of PEC experiments. Elimination experiments demonstrate that photo-generated electrons (e–) performed a key role in the catalytic reduction of Cr(VI). The significantly improved PEC performance can be attributed to the bias voltage and the p-n heterojunction formed between Co3O4 and In2O3. Therefore, Co3O4/In2O3 nanocomposites have a considerable potential for the PEC reduction of Cr(VI).
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)8755–8766
Number of pages12
JournalACS Applied Nano Materials
Volume5
Issue number7
Early online date24 Jun 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 22 Jul 2022

Keywords

  • PEC
  • reduction of Cr(VI)
  • p-n heterojunction
  • Co3O4/In2O3
  • microwave-hydrothermal
  • Co O /In O

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