Controllable synthesis and photocatalytic activities of cube and hexagonal prism ZnO

The cube and hexagonal prism zinc oxide (ZnO) microstructures have been controllably synthesised by the facile liquid precipitation method by using sodium dodecyl benzene sulphonate and cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide as surfactant separately. The probable formation mechanism is also proposed based on the experimental results. The photoluminescence characterisation of cube and hexagonal prism ZnO structures exhibited a strong blue emission at 470 nm and the emission intensity of the cube ZnO improved 60 more than the hexagonal prism ZnO. The photocatalytic activities of the cube and hexagonal prism ZnO were investigated by methyl orange, rhodamine B and fuchsine acid as a model organic compound under ultraviolet light irradiation. The results show that the photocatalytic activity of the cube ZnO is superior to that of the hexagonal prism ZnO when the above three dyes were used. It is suggested that photocatalytic activities are improved by changing the morphologies of ZnO crystals.