Novel nano coordination polymer based synthesis of porous ZnO hexagonal nanodisk for higher gas sorption and photocatalytic activities

Zinc(II)-based nano co-ordination polymers (NCPs) are first prepared at room temperature from three different isomers of dihydroxysalophen (DHS) ligand with Zn( OAc)(2)center dot 2H(2)O and 1,4-benzenedicarboxylic acid (BDC) in DMF solvent. Facile calcinations of [Zn (DHS) (BDC)]center dot nH(2)O (shortly denoted as Zn(II)-based NCP) at ambient conditions produces porous ZnO hexagonal nanodisks. Moreover, a novel approach has been introduced to observe the effect of ligand of the NCP on the physico-chemical properties of the as synthesized ZnO. The porous ZnO nanodisks are characterized by FT-IR, PXRD, TEM, FESEM, EDX and BET analysis, and the results exhibit that they possess different sizes, surface areas and porosities. Nitrogen gas sorption capacity and photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared ZnO nanodisks are also checked, and it is noticed that they differ in these physico-chemical properties due to having different porosities and surface areas. A comparative study is also done with commercially available ZnO; interestingly, the commercial ZnO exhibited lower surface area, gas sorption and photocatalytic activity compared to the ZnO nanodisks. Hence, preparation of the ZnO through the NCP route and tuning their physico-chemical properties would offer new directions in synthesis of various nano metal oxides of unique properties. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.