A Facile Solid State Synthesis of Cone-like ZnO Microstructure an Efficient Solar-Light driven Photocatalyst for Rhodamine B Degradation

ZnO microstructure was synthesized via a simple solid-state pyrolysis method using zinc nitrate hexahydrate as precursor. The crystalline structure and elemental composition of synthesized material was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. The material structural morphology was defined by field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The optical property was studied by UV-diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS) and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). The molecular species was identified by Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The obtained microstructure showed an efficient solar-light driven photocatalytic activity by decomposition of rhodamine B (RhB) and the catalyst performance was investigated by using several parameters. The synthesized ZnO microstructure exhibited novel cone-like morphology, high crystalline quality and efficient solar-light active photocatalytic properties. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.