Photothermal synergic catalytic degradation of the gaseous organic pollutant isopropanol in oxygen vacancies utilizing ZnFe2O4

Abstract

ZnFe2O4 is an environmentally friendly semiconductor material which has potential applications in catalytic organic pollutant degradation. Here, we demonstrate the synthesis of ZnFe2O4 and its photothermal catalytic application. The obtained ZnFe2O4 prepared by using the sol-gel method has a large specific surface area which reaches 56.4 m2/g. Electron paramagnetic resonance, X-ray photoelectron spectra, and photoabsorption results indicate that ZnFe2O4 has plentiful oxygen vacancies. When evaluated by the degradation of the gaseous organic pollutant isopropanol, oxygen-vacancy-rich ZnFe2O4 presents a high and stable thermal catalytic performance, while driven by high-intensity light. In addition, a distinct improvement is observed. Moreover, a synergic photothermal catalytic mechanism of isopropanol degradation on ZnFe2O4 is proposed.