THE EFFECT OF DFFERENT MORPHOLOGES OF NANOSTRUCTURED ZNO ON OPTICAL PROPERTIES

Zinc oxide (ZnO) particles with various morphologies (naorod-like, nanosheet-like and mixture of rod andparticle) were successfully prepared via simple method solid states reaction at room temperature and 300°C.The samples were characterized and used for photodecolorization of Congo red (CR). It was found that, there isa close relationship between the photodecolorization, morphology and size. The optical band gap value ofnanorod-like ZnO was calculated to be about 4.0eV. This value exhibitsnearly a 0.7–0.9eV blue shift from thatof nanosheet-like and mixture of rod and particle ZnO, which is related to size decrease of the particles andreaching to the quantum confinement limit of nanoparticles. Also, nanorod-like ZnO showed higher Corresponding author 2 Rasol Abdullah Mirzaie, Firouzeh Kamrani, Azam Anarakti Firooz, Abbas Ali Khodadadiphotodecolorization in visible light in compared with other photocatalysts. It may be attributed to especialmorphology (nanorod-like) with smaller crystallite size and presence of oxygen vacancies. It could beconsidered as a promising photocatalyst for dyes treatment.

Keywords:

ZnO , Nanostructure , Photocatalyst , Morphology