Facile Fabrication of Porous ZnS and ZnO Films by Coaxial Electrospinning for Highly Efficient Photodegradation of Organic Dyes

Porous ZnS and ZnO nano-crystal films were fabricated via a three-step procedure. First, Zn(CH3 COO)2 /Silk Fibroin nanofiber mats were prepared by coaxial electrospinning. Second, Zn(CH3 COO)2 /Silk Fibroin mats were immersed in NaS solution to react with S2- to obtain ZnS/Silk Fibroin nanofiber mats. Finally, ZnO porous films were prepared by calcination of ZnS/Silk Fibroin composite mat at 600°C in air atmosphere. When ZnS/Silk Fibroin mats were calcinated in nitrogen, ZnS/Carbon composite mats were obtained accordingly. The resulting porous films were fully characterized. The ZnO porous films were the aggregation of ZnO nano-crystal with hexagonal wurtzite structure. The seize of ZnO was estimated in the range of 10-20 nm. Both of the ZnS and ZnO nano-crystal films exhibited high photocatalytic activities for the photodegradation of Methylene blue and Rhodamine B. It was also found that ZnO porous films are better than ZnS/Carbon nanofiber mats. In addition, photocatalysis of a real wastewater sample from a printing and dyeing company was conducted. The ZnO porous films exhibited excellent performance to treat the real samples. Moreover, the porous ZnO nano-crystal photocatalyst could easily be recycled without notable loss of catalysis ability.