Facile low-temperature synthesis of ZnO nanopyramid and its application to photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange dye under UV irradiation

ZnO nanopyramid-like nanostructures were grown by a low-temperature simple solution process. The detailed characterizations have shown that the ZnO nanostructures were single crystalline and had nanopyramid morphology with an average size of 50-100 nm. The photocatalytic activity of ZnO NPys was evaluated for use in the degradation of methyl orange (MO) dye, and exhibited similar to 95% MO decomposition within 150 min under UV irradiation. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.