Sunlight photocatalytic activity enhancement and mechanism of novel europium-doped ZnO hierarchical micro/nanospheres for degradation of phenol

- Novel Eu-doped hierarchical ZnO micro/nanospheres were fabricated.
- The hierarchical structure was accumulated by lots of interleaving nanosheets.
- The formation of hierarchical micro/nanospheres was discussed.
- Eu doping can effectively trap the ecb− and inhibit the recombination with hvb+.
- Effective degradation and mineralization of phenol under natural sunlight.