Ag/ZnO Heterojunction Decorated on Polypropylene as a Membrane for Photocatalytic Nitrogen Oxide Removal

Abstract

We synthesized a Ag/ZnO junction coated on a polypropylene (PP) membrane toward the removal of nitrogen oxide (NO) gas under visible light for an air-filtration machine in the future. The Ag/ZnO catalyst plays an important role in the separation of electron-hole pairs, leading to enhancing the photocatalytic NO removal through the localized surface plasmon resonance effect (LSPR) of Ag nanoparticles (NPs). In our investigation, the 3 wt % Ag NPs are the best composite sample, which is achieved the best content for the PP membrane in the NO removal. The Ag/ZnO heterojunction retains an excellent performance of 40.87% even after being used repetitively for 6 cycling tests. In addition, this Ag/ZnO/PP membrane has a good trend for the green product's conversion in the NO reaction, which expressed a very low concentration of the NO2 yield. This is the first report on a Ag/ZnO/PP membrane for NO photocatalytic removal, to advance membrane technology for air purification and treatment in the near future.