Synthesis of long ZnO/ZnS core–shell nanowires and their optical properties

Abstract

Aligned zinc oxide/zinc sulfide core–shell nanowire arrays are synthesized on transparent conductive oxide (TCO) glass substrate by sulfurizing ZnO nanowires using a vapor phase method. The length of these nanowires is about 7.3μm with diameter of ~100nm. The thickness of the ZnS shell can be controlled by adjusting the reaction time. It is found that the shell layer is well crystallized with preferring growth direction of ZnS [002]. The result indicates that when used to decompose methyl orange (MO), the core–shell nanowire arrays have superior photocatalytic performance under UV-light irradiation, which shows considerable potential applications of this nanocomposite in water purification.