Nano‐MgO prepared via templating on biodegradable filter paper

Abstract Nano‐MgO was successfully fabricated by a facile, inexpensive, and environment‐friendly synthetic method using filter paper as a bio‐template. The influence of the concentration of raw material Mg(CH 3 COO) 2 ·4H 2 O on the textural properties of nano‐MgO was investigated, and the as‐prepared nano‐MgO was characterized by X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X‐ray analysis, thermo gravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results of the experiment show the synthetic MgO fibres are composed of 20 nm tiny particles with a surface area of 68.28 m 2 /g and a pore width of 13 nm. When the concentration of Mg(CH 3 COO) 2 ·4H 2 O solution was 0.03 mol/L, the product MgO copied the micro‐morphology of the filter paper. In addition, the photocatalytic activity of the prepared sample was investigated, and the results showed that the nano‐MgO prepared by this method has a higher catalytic activity than that prepared without a template.