Acta Phys. -Chim. Sin. ›› 2011, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (01): 193-198.doi: 10.3866/PKU.WHXB20110124

• CATALYSIS AND SURFACE SCIENCE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Controlled Growth of Self-Assembled ZnO Thin Films and Characterization of Their Photocatalytic Properties

XIE Juan1,2, WANG Hu1,2, DUAN Ming1   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, P. R. China;
    2. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, P. R. China
  • Received:2010-07-27 Revised:2010-10-18 Published:2010-12-31
  • Contact: WANG Hu E-mail:senty78@126.com
  • Supported by:

    The project was supported by the Open Fund of State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation (Southwest Petroleum University, SWPU), China (PLN0805).

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Abstract:

Self-assembled ZnO thin films with controlled sizes were successfully prepared by varying the processing parameters. The films have a photonic band gap, which extends the absorption range to the visible light region. The photocatalytic activities of the ZnO thin films were evaluated by the degradation of methyl orange (MO). The crystal structure of ZnO was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that the ZnO thin films exhibit good photocatalytic activities under sunlight. Furthermore, the photocatalytic activities of the ZnO thin films were highly dependent on sphere size. With an increase in ZnO sphere size, the degradation efficiency toward MO decreased. The photodegradation can be described using a pseudo-first-order kinetics equation.

Key words: ZnO, Self-assembly, Controlled growth, Photonic band gap, Photocatalysis

MSC2000: 

  • O643