Hexagonal ZnO nanorods assembled flowers for photocatalytic dye degradation: Growth, structural and optical properties

•Highly crystalline hexagonal ZnO nanorods assembled flowers was synthesized.•It applied as an efficient photocatalyst for the photodegradation of organic dyes.•Synthesized ZnO flowers showed very high degradation rates in very short time.•Degradation rate constants were found to 0.01313mint−1 and 0...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Superlattices and microstructures 2013-12, Vol.64, p.495-506
Main Authors: Rahman, Qazi Inamur, Ahmad, Musheer, Misra, Sunil Kumar, Lohani, Minaxi B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Catalytic properties
Chemical synthesis
Nanostructures
Surfaces
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Summary:•Highly crystalline hexagonal ZnO nanorods assembled flowers was synthesized.•It applied as an efficient photocatalyst for the photodegradation of organic dyes.•Synthesized ZnO flowers showed very high degradation rates in very short time.•Degradation rate constants were found to 0.01313mint−1 and 0.0104 mint−1 for MB and RhB dye respectively. A facile hydrothermal method was used to synthesize highly crystalline hexagonal ZnO nanorods assembled flowers by the reaction of zinc acetate and hexamethylenetetraamine (HMTA) at 105°C. The morphological characterizations revealed that well defined ZnO nanorods were assembled into flowers morphology. X-rays diffraction patterns showed the highly crystalline nature of ZnO with hexagonal wurtzite structure. The structural and optical properties of hexagonal ZnO nanorods assembled flowers were measured by Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR) and ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) measurements. The as-synthesized hexagonal ZnO nanorods assembled flowers were applied as an efficient photocatalyst for the photodegradation of organic dyes under UV-light irradiation. The methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RhB) over the surface of hexagonal ZnO nanorods assembled flowers considerably degraded by ∼91% and ∼80% within 140min respectively. The degradation rate constants were found to be kapp (0.01313mint−1) and kapp(0.0104mint−1) for MB and RhB dye respectively. The enhanced dye degradation might be attributed to the efficient charge separation and the large number of oxyradicals generation on the surface of the hexagonal ZnO nanorods assembled flowers.
ISSN:0749-6036
1096-3677
DOI:10.1016/j.spmi.2013.10.011