Fabrication, structure, and photocatalytic activities of boron-doped ZnO nanorods hydrothermally grown on CVD diamond film

The boron (B)-doped zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs) have been fabricated on chemical vapor deposited (CVD) diamond film by hydrothermal technique. The mean diameter of the B-doped ZnO NRs is larger than that of the undoped NRs. The results of X-ray diffraction and first-principles calculations demonstrate that the boron atoms prefer to occupy the octahedral interstice positions of ZnO, which lead to the lattice expansion and band gap shrinkage. The rectifying B-doped ZnO NRs/p-diamond heterojunction structure has been performed to degrade reactive yellow 15 solution, showing a high performance photocatalysis. The photocatalysis mechanism based on the pn heterojunction is discussed. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.