Zinc oxide's hierarchical nanostructure and its photocatalytic properties

► The nanofibers from colloidal solution of mixture containing Zinc acetate, poly vinyl alcohol, and zinc powder, were successfully achieved by electrospinning. ► These nanofibers after calcinations at 500 °C for 90 min, containing the zinc nanoparticles has been exploited as the seeds to grow nanobranches followed by hydrothermal technique. ► The produced hierarchical structure could be utilized in many exciting fields such as dye degradation, photoluminescence, etc.