Photocatalytic activity of zinc oxide micro-flowers synthesized via solution method

ZnO micro-flowers composed of hexagonal nanorods were successfully fabricated by soft chemical technique from zinc acetate di-hydrate (Zn(CH3COO)2·2H2O) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) in 1 h refluxing. The crystallinity of the grown product was analyzed by X-ray diffraction technique revealing the as-prepared micro-flowers have hexagonal wurzite structure. Their morphology was investigated by using FESEM and TEM, which showed that well-dispersed micro-flowers of 2–3 μm in diameter had been formed. Furthermore, the synthesized micro-flowers showed a better photo-catalytic activity in presence of methylene blue (MB) dye. Also, the Zn2p1/2, Zn2p3/2, and O1s peaks in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy clearly suggest that the grown nanostructures are pure ZnO. Additionally, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography–mass spectroscopy (LC–MS) were applied to observe the degradated compounds from the photo-catalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye in presence of zinc oxide micro-flowers.