Co₃O₄, ZnO, Co₃O₄-ZnO Nanofibers and Their Properties

Abstract

Coupled nanofibers consisting of cobalt oxide (Co 3 O 4 and zinc oxide (ZnO) were prepared by the electrospinning process, and tested as a photocatalyst for dye degradation.Initially, electrospinning of a sol-gel consisting of cobalt acetate/zinc acetate/poly(vinyl alcohol) was used to produce polymeric nanofibers.Calcination of the obtained nanofibers in air at 600 C produced (Co 3 O 4 -ZnO) nanofibers.Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), were employed to characterize the as-spun nanofibers and the calcined product.X-ray powder diffractometery (XRD) analysis was also used to characterize the chemical composition and the crystallographic structure of the produced nanofibers.Photodegradation of rhodamine B (RB) dye was studied individually using three photocatalysts: (Co 3 O 4 -ZnO) nanofibers, pristine (Co 3 O 4 and (ZnO) nanofibers.The (Co 3 O 4 -ZnO) nanofibers can eliminate all of the rhodamine B dye within about 90 min, however, the other two nanostructures could not totally eliminate all dye even after 3 h.Moreover, the tensile strength and the Young's modulus of coupled nanofibers were higher than that of pristine (CoAc/PVA) and (ZnAc/PVA) nanofibers.The increased mechanical properties of coupled nanofibers might be due to the chemical bonding between Zn 2+ and Co 2+ .