Large-scale synthesis of ZnO balls made of fluffy thin nanosheets by simple solution process: Structural, optical and photocatalytic properties

This paper reports a large-scale synthesis of ZnO balls made of fluffy thin ZnO nanosheets by simple solution process at low-temperature of 65 +/- 2 degrees C. The synthesized ZnO structures were characterized in detail in terms of their morphological, structural, optical and photocatalytic properties. The detailed morphological characterizations, done by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), confirmed that the synthesized products are ZnO balls which are made by accumulation of hundreds of thin ZnO nanosheets. Interestingly, it is seen that the nanosheets are arranged in such a special fashion that they made ball-like morphologies. Detailed structural examinations revealed that of as-synthesized ZnO products are well-crystalline and possessing wurtzite hexagonal phase. The optical property, measured by UV-Visible spectroscopy, substantiated good optical properties for as-synthesized ZnO balls. The as-synthesized ZnO balls were utilized as an efficient photocatalysts for the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye. Almost complete degradation of MB was observed in presence of ZnO balls composed of nanosheets within 70 min under UV-light irradiation. By comparing the photocatalytic performance with commercially available TiO2-UV-100, it was observed that the synthesized ZnO balls exhibited superior photocatalytic performance as compared to TiO2-UV-100 photocatalyst. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.