Fabrication of photoluminescent ZnO/SBA-15 through directly dispersing zinc nitrate into the as-prepared mesoporous silica occluded with template

Photoluminescent ZnO/SBA-15 mesoporous materials are prepared by directly grind zinc nitrate into the as-prepared samples occluded with template, and this solvent-free method not only saves time and energy, but also enables a large amount of zinc oxide to be highly dispersed in the channels of mesoporous silica. The resulting composites exhibit photoluminescence (PL) properties with the ZnO quantum confinement, and the dispersed ZnO in SBA-15 illustrates a similar UV emission to crystalline ZnO nanostructures. Besides, this photoluminescence is used to try to detect the nitrosamine content in solution by quenching PL spectra for the first time, suggesting potential applications of ZnO/SBA-15 in sensing carcinogens such as N′-nitrosonornicotine (NNN) in the environment.