Synthesis of ZnO/CaF2 nanocomposites with good antibacterial property and poor photocatalytic activity

We aim to design and synthesize a functional ZnO-based material with good antibacterial property and poor photocatalytic activity simultaneously and thus the textiles coated with this functional material will not prone to breed bacteria or fade. In this study, the ZnO/CaF2 nanocomposite prepared by a homogeneous precipitation approach was selected as the candidate. Characterization results showed that as-prepared samples were uniformly distributed nanoparticles with an average size of about 30 nm. The test of antibacterial activity proved that the ZnO/CaF2 nanocomposite can maintain the original good antibacterial property of nano-ZnO while the degradation of methylene blue under visible light revealed that CaF2 dopant can simultaneously remarkably weaken the visible photocatalytic activity of nano-ZnO. A mechanism was proposed and discussed in detail. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.