Production of Reactive Oxygen Species and Electrons from Photoexcited ZnO and ZnS Nanoparticles: A Comparative Study for Unraveling their Distinct Photocatalytic Activities

By Weiwei He, Huimin Jia, Junhui Cai, Xiangna Han, Zhi Zheng, W. Wamer, Jun-Jie Yin. 2016

166 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The photoactivity of semiconductor nanostructures makes them potentially useful for environmental remediation and antibacterial applications. Understanding the mechanism underlying the photochemical and photobiological activities of photoexcited semiconductors is of great importance for developing applications and assessing associated risks. In the current work, using electron spin resonance spectroscopy coupled with spin trapping and spin labeling techniques, we comparatively and systematically investigate the abilities of ZnO and ZnS to generate hydroxyl radical, superoxide, singlet oxygen, photoinduced electrons, and oxygen consumption during irradiation. It was found that although ZnO and ZnS, when photoexcited, can produce hydroxyl radical, superoxide, and singlet oxygen, ZnO is more effective than ZnS in producing hydroxyl radical and singlet oxygen while ZnS is more effective than ZnO in generating superoxide. The characterization with ESR spin labeling and oximetry indicates ZnS is about 4 times m...

Subfields: Materials Chemistry, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f429f166143f90ba0c8a332c64b6b5e4ab9c2a53