Photodegradation of methyl violet dye using ZnO nanorods

Zinc oxide nanorods were prepared at 3, 6, 9 and 12 h by using solid state reaction method with appropriate reactants. The structural, optical and morphological properties of the synthesized samples were investigated. The XRD analysis revealed that the nanorods were polycrystalline in nature and having hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure with a preferred grain orientation along (101) direction. The optical band gap energy values were increased from 3.35 to 3.50 eV with increase in annealing temperatures. From the PL spectra, the strong red emission and weak blue emission were observed. The functional groups present in the samples were identified by FTIR spectroscopy. The microstructure and elemental identifications were done by SEM and TEM with EDX analysis. The photocatalytic performance of the ZnO nanorods was evaluated using methyl violet dye as a model contaminant.