<i>In-situ</i> hybridization of ZnO nanorod and graphene oxide with enhancing photocatalytic activity

Abstract

In this work, nanohybridization of ZnO nanorod and graphene oxide (GO) were prepared by a facile hydrothermal method. The effects of GO on crystal structure and surface morphology of ZnO were revealed by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman, and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The presence of GO in the composite resulted the ZnO nanorod more uniform which its diameter size was decreased. Optical properties characterized by UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) showed that the ZnO/GO composite has the narrower bandgap value and the better visible-light absorption characterisitics in compare to the bare ZnO. As a result, the photocatalytic ability in degradation of methylene blue under solar irradiation was enhanced in the ZnO/GO composite.