作者
Hairus Abdullah,Riski Titian Ginting,Hardy Shuwanto,Dong‐Hau Kuo
摘要
Banana peels-derived porous carbon has been synthesized with urea and potassium carbonate mixture and annealed at 700 ͦ C to decrease the size of carbon particles. The as-prepared carbon is composited with Zn(O,S) to form Zn(O,S)/C with different carbon contents of 1, 2.5, and 5 wt%. All the nanocomposites are identified with XRD, SEM, Raman, TEM, XPS, FTIR, and EPR analyses. The optical and electrochemical properties are also analyzed with DRS, Tauc plot, PL, EIS, TPC, MS, and CV measurements. Furthermore, the amounts of generated hydrogen gas are evaluated in the presence of Zn(O,S), ZC-1, ZC-2.5, and ZC-5 nanocomposites under simulated solar light irradiation. ZC-2.5 with an appropriate amount of banana peels carbon generates 9232 μmol/g in a 5-h photocatalytic reaction. The HER rate is enhanced by 1.7 times compared to pristine Zn(O,S). Incorporating low-cost banana peels carbon improves the separation between photogenerated electron and hole as the active site of carbon in ZC-2.5 attract the electron for hydrogen reduction. In addition, the generated V o sites on Zn(O,S) during the photocatalytic reaction also increase the water and alcohol oxidation to scavenger the generated holes. This work designed a simple catalytic system with low-cost and environmentally-friendly material to provide an alternative energy source by harvesting solar light energy. • Low-cost porous carbon is successfully synthesized from banana peels. • The HER rate is enhanced by 1.7 times compared to pristine Zn(O,S). • Oxygen vacancy ( V O 2 + ) and the carbon help for a better electron and hole separation. • The optimized Zn(O,S)/C nanocomposite can generate ∼ 9232 μmol/g hydrogen gas. • This work demonstrates a low-cost catalytic system to provide a sustainable energy source.