Hydrothermal growth of ZnO nanorods and their photocatalytic activity

Abstract

ZnO nanorods were fabricated on Si substrate by a simple novel hydrothermal method. ZnO nanorods were investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanningelectron microscopy, transmission electron microscope,energy dispersive X-rayspectrometer, UV-vis spectrum and photoluminescence, systematically. ZnO nanorods were pure wurtzite phase and the band gap was evaluated to be ~3.20eV. Green and orange luminescences were attributed to O vacancies and O interstials, respectively. Furthermore, ZnO nanorods exhibited good photocatalytic performances and O vacancies and O interstials were considered to be the active sites of the ZnO photocatalyst.