Ternary photocatalyst of ZIF-8 nanofilms coupled with AgI nanoparticles seamlessly on ZnO microrods for enhanced visible-light photocatalysis degradation

Abstract Background The introduction of porous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) enables new opportunities for the development of photocatalysts. Among of them, zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) nanofilms coupled with semiconductor heterostructures have promising properties but still rarely reported. Methods In this study, we developed a new ternary ZnO@ZIF-8/AgI composite via in-situ seamless growth of ZIF-8 nanofilms on the surface of ZnO microrods, and then loading AgI on ZnO@ZIF-8. In such process, ZIF-8 nanofilms not only feature large specific surface areas and abundant reactive sites for capturing the targets, but also provide a favorable environment for subsequent deposition of AgI nanoparticles to construct the stable and efficient ZnO@ZIF-8/AgI photocatalyst. Selected tetracycline (TC) as the target, the as-obtained ZnO@ZIF-8/AgI photocatalyst was applied to TC photodegradation under visible light irradiation. Significant The ternary heterostructure could increase the separation and migration efficiencies of photogenerated electron-hole pairs of photocatalyst. The as-obtained ZnO@ZIF-8/AgI photocatalyst exhibited good adsorption and photocatalytic performance, which was superior to unitary, binary photocatalysts and control composite (ZnO/AgI@ZIF-8). This study demonstrates the great potential of such a protocol for future photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants, also provides some new perspective for advanced progress of novel MOF-nanofilms-based heterostructure photocatalysts.