Dual template synthesis and photoelectrochemical performance of 3-D hierarchical porous zinc oxide

• Hierarchical porous ZnO synthesis through template method.
• The pore structure of as-prepared ZnO is highly ordered.
• High photocurrent of the ZnO film was obtained due to the hierarchical porous structure.

In this work, a novel hierarchical porous ZnO is successfully synthesized through a sol–gel method, in which a kind of biological material is used as hard template, block copolymer Pluronic F127 as soft template. The phase and morphology of the products are characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The results show that the as-prepared ZnO with a hierarchical porous architecture is assembled by multiple-layered porous nanosheets, of which the pore structure is highly ordered. The photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared ZnO is evaluated by photodegradation reaction of methylene blue. The photoelectrochemical (PEC) property of the hierarchical porous ZnO film is also investigated in this work.