Photocatalytic activity of ZnO nanomaterials with different morphologies

Abstract

The influence of ZnO nanomaterial morphologies on their photocatalytic activity was studied. The ZnO nanobelts and the network of hexagonal disks were grown by pyrolysis in ammonium chloride. ZnO tetrapods were produced by plasma-assisted technology. The nanobelts and tetrapod arms were growing along the c-axis. The sidewalls of nanobelts comprise (21�1�0) and (011�0) plane, while the needle-shape arms of tetrapods are known to consist of altering {011�0} and semi-polar {101�1} facets. The hexagonal ZnO disks have exposed mainly (+0001) facets with the highest surface energy. They showed the highest photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue, dissolved in water to a concentration of 100 mg/L.