Investigation of Surface Treatment with Various Silane Coupling Agents on Photocatalytic Activity of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles

This paper aims at treatment of Zinc oxide nanoparticles with amino- and glymo- functional silane coupling agents. The influence of such treatment (with three range of concentration of silanes) on photocatalytic activity of nanoparticles is discussed. TGA and FTIR analyses confirmed the surface treatment successfulness and revealed that the higher concentration of silane leads to a higher amount of treatment on particles surface. UV-visible studies demonstrated that surface treatment with silane coupling agents increased the UV absorption capabilities of nanoparticles. In addition, the particle's stability in aqueous and organic media was investigated photocatalytic assessments in liquid medium revealed that while amino silane reduced the photocatalytic activity, glymo-silane promoted it.