Synthesis and Application of New Polyphosphazene Microsphere Photocatalysts.

Polyphosphazene (PZS) microspheres attached with zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by a simple method. The morphology and structure were characterized by FTIR, SEM and TEM. The characterization results show that the ZnO nanoparticles are attached on the surface of PZS microspheres. The resultant microspheres are about 1.3 μm in diameter and the attached individual ZnO nanoparticles are about 20 nm. The XRD, EDX and XPS analysis demonstrate that the nanoparticles in the resultant microspheres are ZnO nanoparticles. The thermostable properties were investigated by TGA. The data of the photochemical catalysis shows that the product has very good application in photochemical catalysis. The photocatalytic activities of the PZS/ZnO are much higher than that of the pure PZS and ZnO, due to the combination of their merits and the synergistic effects on the enhancement of their photochemical catalytic performance. This is a novel, simple and economic method to preparing hybrid inorganic–organic microspheres using for photochemical catalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]