Ethanol templated synthesis of microporous/mesoporous nanozinc oxide with multi-level structure and its outstanding photo-catalytic properties

Abstract

The microporous/mesoporous nano zinc oxide with a multi-level structure was successfully synthesized via using ethanol template. Ethanol not only improves the crystallinity of nano-ZnO, but also induce pore structure which provides more active sites for photocatalysis. The speci c B.E.T surface area of the nano-ZnO sample is 28.05m 2 /g, the pore volume is 0.069cm 3 /g, and the surface is covered with 1-30nm deep pits. The nanostructured structures at higher levels are composed of 300 to 500nm nanosheets.Compared with hard templates and other surfactant soft templates, this method of using Ethanol as a template not only has the advantages of green, simple reprocessing, and low price, but also provides an idea for synthesizing other multi-stage structures.