Fabrication of ZnO Nanoparticles for Photocatalytic Reduction of CO₂

College of Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Chaowang road 18, 310014 Hangzhou, China

^a bbmmjjlp@126.com
^b yfchen@zjut.edu.cn
^c lyl_edu@126.com
^d hyliu@zjut.edu.cn
^e zzk@zjut.edu.cn
^* Corresponding author: zzk@zjut.edu.cn

Abstract

ZnO nanoparticles were fabricated by anodization method. Different fabrication conditions, including pH buffers (sodium hydroxide, citric acid, oxalic acid, hydrogen peroxide), electrolyte concentration, temperature and voltage were investigated. The field emission scanning electron microscopes (FESEMs) revealed that zinc oxide nanoparticles with discal morphology were formed. The optimum conditions for fabrication of nano ZnO material with discal shape nanoparticles are 1wt% NH₄F electrolyte in water ethano(1:1) solution at 25°C and 40v with 0.2M citric acid as pH buffer. This ZnO material shows rather high photocatalytic reduction activity of CO₂ and the yield of CH₄ reaches 2.48 umol/g catalyst.