Increased photocatalytic activity of tube-brush-like ZnO nanostructures fabricated by using PVP nanofibers as templates

•We obtained the tube-brush-like ZnO nanostructures.•We used polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) nanofibers used as templates by ALD and hydrothermal method to prepare tube-brush-like ZnO nanostructure.•The tube-brush-like ZnO nanostructures showed higher photocatalytic activity, the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) was up to 98% after 2 h of irradiation.

The tube-brush-like ZnO nanostructures were synthesized by hydrothermal method using electrospinning polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) nanofibers as templates. The photocatalytic activity of as-grown samples was investigated by photo-degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB). The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV/visible absorption spectroscopy (UV-vis) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. It was found that the morphologies of the prepared ZnO were tube-brush-like nanostructures. With the grown time increasing, the crystal and the optical properties were improved. In the photocatalytic experiment, the tube-brush-like ZnO nanostructures photocatalytic activity was enhanced the degradation of RhB was up to 98% after 2 h of irradiation. The tube-brush-like ZnO nanostructures showed higher photocatalytic activity because of the special surface morphology.