One-step hydrothermal synthesis of high surface area m-ZrO2 nanorings with lower band gap, blue emission and high photocatalytic activity

Herein, monoclinic ZrO 2 (m-ZrO 2 ) nanostructures were prepared by a facile one-step hydrothermal method. As-prepared products showed ring-like nanostructures with an average size of ~ 23.1 nm and high surface area. The ring-like m-ZrO 2 nanostructures exhibited broad absorption spectra in the visible region (400–800 nm) and a low band gap of 3.7 eV. Moreover, blue emission was also shown by m-ZrO 2 nanostructures under the excitation of wavelength 300 nm. As-prepared m-ZrO 2 nanostructures show high photocatalytic performance under UV irradiation. The lower band, high surface area and presence of oxygen vacancies may be attributed to the excellent performance of ring-like m-ZrO 2 nanostructures as a photocatalyst.