Influence of Seed Layer Surface Position on Morphology and Photocatalysis Efficiency of ZnO Nanorods and Nanoflowers

Fouzia Bourfaa,Yusuf Selim Ocak,Mohamed Salah Aida,Nadir Attaf,Abderhamane Boutelala

doi:10.1155/2020/4072351

Fouzia Bourfaa, Yusuf Selim Ocak + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/4072351

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Abstract

ZnO nanorods and nanoflowers were synthesized by a hydrothermal method via different surface substrate positions at 120°C for 3 h as a growth time. The influence of seed layer surface position on the growth of ZnO nanostructures was observed by the variation of ZnO morphologies from nanorods to nanoflowers. Both analyses XRD and EDS proved the pure wurtzite phase with high crystallinity quality and preferential growth along the c-axis. As displayed from the scanning of surface morphology through SEM, a large amount of ZnO nanorods and nanoflowers were deposited on the full substrate surface. Diverse ZnO photocatalysts were used to study the photodegradation of Methylene Blue (MB) dye by UV light. The organic dye MB was decolorized by the most efficient photocatalyst among the ZnO-tested nanostructures. The results showed an improvement of the degradability of this dye from 54% to 81% for ZnO nanoflowers compared to nanorods. Thus, ZnO nanoflowers are the best photocatalyst which have the high efficiency photodegradation and the large rate constant.

Highlights

One-dimensional (1D) ZnO nanostructured semiconductor photocatalysts have received in recent years an enormous attention because of their wide-spread applications in environmental treatment [1]
Nanostructured ZnO has been synthesized in various morphologies like nanowires, nanorods, nanobelts, nanoneedles, and nanoflowers which have enticed a significant interest owing to their promising applications such as gas sensing [5], light-emitting diodes (LEDs) [6], antibacterial agent [7], solar cells [8, 9], and photocatalysis [10, 11]
In ZnO nanostructures synthesized with various substrate positions, there is an appearance of peaks such as (004) and (202) for ZnO nanoflowers (Figure 2(c)) and disappearance of peaks (100), (102), (200), (201), (004), and (202) for ZnO nanorods (Figure 2(a))

Summary

Introduction

One-dimensional (1D) ZnO nanostructured semiconductor photocatalysts have received in recent years an enormous attention because of their wide-spread applications in environmental treatment [1] These ZnO photocatalysts have a high efficiency for the degradation of toxic organic pollutants. Fan et al [10] fabricated ZnO nanoflowers on Si substrate by the hydrothermal method at 70 and 80°C for 70 min, and the photocatalysis activity of Rhodamine dye with a concentration of 5 mg/l by ZnO nanoflowers/Si was investigated. Porous layers of ZnO nanostructures like nanorods and nanoflowers were deposited on glass substrate and used as photocatalysts to remove the organic contaminants. The preparation of ZnO nanorods and nanoflowers over different seed layer positions was done by the hydrothermal method, and their photocatalyst application was studied. The photocatalytic achievements of ZnO nanorods and nanoflowers were tested, and the photodegradation of organic dye was investigated

Experimental Procedure

Results and Discussion

Conclusion