A facile one-pot synthesis of yolk-shell ZnO microsphere-graphene composite induced by graphene oxide

Yolk-shell ZnO microsphere-graphene composites (YZM-G) were synthesized by a facile one-pot route, The yolk-shell ZnO microsphere, with ZnO nanoparticles as core and ZnO nanodisks as shell, has an average diameter of 3 μm. The formation of the ZnO nanoparticles as core was ascribed to the controlling of the concentration of free Zn2+ ions in the solution caused by the graphene oxide, and the formation of ZnO nanodisks as shell was due to the templating effect of graphene oxide. Furthermore, the YZM-G possessed considerable photocatalytic property under visible light for the degradation of methylene blue.