Morphological and Structural Control of Electrodeposited ZnO Thin Films and Its Influence on the Photocatalytic Degradation of Methyl Orange Dye

The electrochemical synthesis, the structural, morphological and optical characterization together with the photocatalytic activity of nanostructured ZnO films prepared from zinc nitrate aqueous solutions is reported. Changes in both, the precursor concentration and the electrodeposition time allows obtaining morphologies which evolve from nanoneedles and nanorods to thin films. The analysis of texture coefficients, particle sizes and SEM images give information regarding some aspects related to the crystalline growth of the films. The photocatalytic activity was tested following the degradation of methyl orange. Results show that the surface area, the crystalline planes exposed, the morphology and the band gap of the ZnO nanostructured thin films play an important role in this activity.