Enhanced visible light photocatalysis through fast crystallization of zinc oxide nanorods

• Sunandan Baruah,
• Mohammad Abbas Mahmood,
• Myo Tay Zar Myint,
• Tanujjal Bora and
• Joydeep Dutta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2010, 1, 14–20, doi:10.3762/bjnano.1.3

• Abstract Hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods have inherent crystalline defects primarily due to oxygen vacancies that enhance optical absorption in the visible spectrum, opening up possibilities for visible light photocatalysis. Comparison of photocatalytic activity of ZnO nanorods and nanoparticle films on

• creation in nanostructured photocatalysts could be an attractive solution for visible light photocatalysis. Keywords: defects; nanoparticle; nanorod; photocatalysis; pollutant; ZnO; Introduction Photocatalysis is a light induced catalytic process whereby photogenerated electron-hole pairs in a

• semiconductor undergo redox reactions with molecules adsorbed onto the surface, thereby breaking them into smaller fragments. Photocatalysis with metal-oxide-semiconductor nanostructures has been an area of intense research over the last couple of decades with titania (TiO2) receiving the most attention [1][2