Synthesis and photocatalysis properties of ZnO structures with different morphologies via hydrothermal method

The special flower-like and sheet-like ZnO structures were successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The photocatalytic activity of different morphologies of ZnO structures was evaluated by degradating of methyl orange (MO). The photocatalytic degradation process was monitored in terms of decolorization and total organic carbon (TOC) removals. The results indicated that the flower-like ZnO structures were consisted of numerous flower-like aggregates with the size of 2 μm. The sheet-like ZnO nanostructures were obtained by increasing the reaction time. They exhibited higher photodegradation efficiencies under UV light irradiation than flower-like ZnO structures due to the blue shift of the band gap. The photodegradation could be described as the pseudo-first-order kinetics with apparent rate constants ranging from 1.17 × 10⁻² to 3.42 × 10⁻² min⁻¹, which were based on the morphology of the structures. The photodegradation was faster than the mineralization, indicating that the accumulation of by-products were resistant to photocatalytic degradation.