Synthesis and photocatalytic properties of hierarchical metal nanoparticles/ZnO thin films hetero nanostructures assisted by diblock copolymer inverse micellar nanotemplates

Abstract

Metal dot-on-ZnO type hierarchical nanostructures composed of ordered arrays of noble metal nanoparticles with controlled areal density, prepared from poly(styrene- block-vinyl pyridine) diblock copolymer inverse micelles loaded with metal precursors, on sol–gel process based ∼48 nm thick ZnO thin films exhibit enhanced photocatalytic activities compared with pure ZnO thin films in terms of photodegradation of methylene blue.