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Rapid conjunction of 1D carbon nanotubes and 2D graphitic carbon nitride with ZnO for improved optoelectronic properties

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Abstract

Conjunction of 1D as well as 2D carbonaceous materials (CMs) is of great importance because of the significant improvement in the optoelectronic properties. Through extensive optimization, a rapid, facile and heat-treatment free route is progressed which ensues 88.4 and 92.3% degradation of congo-red dye for CNTs/ZnO and g-C3N4/ZnO, respectively. g-C3N4/ZnO shows the highest value of correlation co-efficient (R2) (0.9927) and rate constant (KC) (0.0390 min−1) among all others. g-C3N4/ZnO-HPs4 displays the highest potential of 1.54 V and over potential of 310 mV for current density value of 10 mA/cm2 compared to others composite while CNTs/ZnO-HPs4 Tafel slope has a value of 42 mV/dec. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry and energy dispersive spectrometry were carried out to confirm the efficacy of nano-composites while electron LSV, Tafel slopes and Nyquist plots were plotted to reveal the consequent efficient electro-catalytic behavior. The modified recipe for the development of nanocomposites having CMs exhibited its potential for use in multiple engineering applications, including but not limited to photocatalysis and oxygen evolution reaction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan

    Mahrukh Israr & Muhammad Abdul Basit

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan

    Faizan Raza

  3. Division of Physical Chemistry, Institute of Chemical Sciences, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, 60800, Pakistan

    Nosheen Nazar

  4. Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering and Emerging Technologies, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

    Tahir Ahmad

  5. Department of Electrical Engineering, Sejong University, 209 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Muhammad Farooq Khan

  6. Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University, Ansan, 15588, Republic of Korea

    Tae Joo Park & Muhammad Abdul Basit

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  1. Mahrukh Israr
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  2. Faizan Raza
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  3. Nosheen Nazar
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  4. Tahir Ahmad
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  5. Muhammad Farooq Khan
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  6. Tae Joo Park
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  7. Muhammad Abdul Basit
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Contributions

MI: experimentation, methodology, writing—original draft. FR: visualization, software. NN: investigation, methodology. TA: formal analysis. MFK: validation, formal analysis. TJP: formal analysis (revision), writing—review and editing. MAB: conceptualization, resources, supervision.

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Correspondence to Tae Joo Park or Muhammad Abdul Basit.

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Israr, M., Raza, F., Nazar, N. et al. Rapid conjunction of 1D carbon nanotubes and 2D graphitic carbon nitride with ZnO for improved optoelectronic properties. Appl Nanosci 10, 3805–3817 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13204-020-01474-z

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