Controllable electrodeposition of ZnO nanorod arrays on flexible stainless steel mesh substrate for photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B

Abstract

Well-aligned single-crystalline ZnO nanorod arrays (ZNRAs) were prepared on flexible stainless steel mesh (SSM) substrate in large-scale by using a direct electrodeposition method. The effects of electrochemical parameters, such as applied potential, applied nucleation potential time, substrate pretreatment, electrodeposition duration and times, on the orientation, morphology and density of ZNRAs were systematically studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and the selected area electron diffraction (SAED). The results showed that ZNRAs on SSM substrate with [001] preferred orientation and well crystallization were obtained by controlling the applied potential in the range of −0.9 to −1.1V. The density of ZNRAs could be increased obviously by applying a nucleation potential (−1.3V for more than 10s before deposition) or by means of substrate pretreatment (the SSM immersed in zinc acetate colloid for more than 10min before deposition), meanwhile, the deposited ZNRAs also had small average diameter (<46±4nm), narrow size distribution and good orientation. In addition, it was also found that the average diameter of ZNRAs could be increased from 89 to 201±5nm by extending the electrodeposition duration from 1800 to 7200s, and the length of rods was from 0.8 to 2.2±0.1μm when the times of the electrodeposition from one to six times. Furthermore, the band gap energy (Eg) of as-prepared ZNTAs was not closely related to the electrodeposition times (only changed from 3.30 to 3.32eV). The ZNRAs prepared with more electrodeposition times showed enhanced photocatalytic performance under the UV-lamp for degradation of Rhodamine B. The degradation efficiency of ZNRAs improved from 89.4% to 98.3% with the deposition times from one to six times.