Synthesis of Na-doped ZnO nanowires and their photocatalytic properties

Na-doped ZnO nanowires with an average diameter of ∼40 nm have been fabricated by a thermal decomposition route at temperature around 400 °C. Their properties have been investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), UV–visible spectroscopy, Raman spectra, and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Room temperature photoluminescence (RT-PL) showed that the as-synthesized ZnO samples exhibited strong visible emission with a major peak at 420 nm. Furthermore, intensity of the visible emission increased and then decreased with increase in Na concentration. The improvement of visible emission at 420 nm in the Na-doped ZnO samples should be a result of the surface defects increased by doping of Na in zinc oxide. In addition, photocatalytic studies indicated that these nanomaterials showed good photocatalytic performance for organic pollutants in water.