Enhanced photocatalytic activity of zinc oxide nanostructures grown by the hot-tube thermal evaporation method
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15282/cst.v5i1.10632Keywords:
Zinc oxide, Thermal evaporation, Gas flow rate, PhotocatalysisAbstract
As photocatalysis has become a promising solution for water treatment to remove toxic substances caused by the textile industry, many researchers are finding ways to improve the photocatalysis process. Over time, zinc oxide (ZnO) which has many attractive properties despite being low-cost, has attracted researchers. However, ZnO also has room for improvement and there are many other ways to enhance ZnO as a photocatalyst to be more efficient in water treatment. In this study, nanostructure ZnO is proposed to be used instead of bulk ZnO. Among the several ways available to synthesise ZnO nanowires, this research advocated employing the hot-tube thermal evaporation approach. Instead of the normal thermal evaporation method, other problems might occur to grow well-aligned ZnO nanowires which can be overcome by using a tube. In this study, the influence of oxygen gas flow rates at 5%, 10%, and 25% is also examined. The Energy-Dispersive X-ray analysis indicated that the sample contains a high proportion of zinc and oxygen, suggesting a high-purity ZnO composition. The highest strong diffraction peak for X-ray Diffraction of ZnO was found at (101), which showed a single crystalline hexagonal structure with an optimal growth direction in the c-axis. As from the photocatalytic activity, all three samples are observed from the photodegradation efficiency. In summary, the sample with a 25% oxygen gas flow rate was selected as the optimal condition for synthesising a homogeneous ZnO surface with high crystallinity via a hot-tube thermal evaporation process, yielding the best photodegradation efficiency in the photocatalysis process.
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