Effect of surfactants on the morphology and photocatocatalytic properties of ZnO nanostructures

3D ZnO hierarchical nanostructures have been successfully synthesized by heating aqueous solutions with a facile surfactants assisted hydrothermal route. The morphology depended on the different surfactants (ionic surfactant: SDS, CTAB and nonionic surfactant: PEG400, PVP) in aqueous solutions. According to the result of SEM, the four products with uniform particle size presented different morphologies. The possible growth mechanism was discussed from three aspects which were nucleation, growth and self-assembly processes respectively. The photocatalytic results indicated that the product grown in the solution with PVP exhibited a significantly high photocatalytic activity and good stability in the processes of cycling degradation of methylene blue. This was mainly due to the special morphology, uniform size and good stability.