Preparation of zinc oxide nanospheres by solution plasma process and their optical property, photocatalytic and antibacterial activities

Single-crystalline zinc oxide (ZnO) nanospheres with high specific surface area were successfully prepared by solution plasma process. These nanospheres showed great antibacterial activities, as good as amikacin or kanamycin, especially towards Salmonella typhimurium. They also displayed better photocatalytic activity in degradation of methyl orange (MO) in aqueous solution than those of Degussa P25 and commercial ZnO. After UV irradiation for 8 min, MO was totally degraded over ZnO nanospheres, whereas only 60% and 75% of MO was degraded over commercial ZnO and P25, respectively. Furthermore, they had a good optical property with a strong UV emission at 380 nm and a weak green emission at 535 nm.

► Single-crystalline ZnO nanospheres were prepared by solution plasma process.
► High specific surface area was obtained.
► ZnO nanospheres showed great antibacterial activities.
► ZnO nanospheres displayed excellent photocatalytic activity.
► ZnO nanospheres had good optical property.