Photocatalytic properties of hierarchical ZnO flowers synthesized by a sucrose-assisted hydrothermal method

Abstract In this work, hierarchical ZnO flowers were synthesized via a sucrose-assisted urea hydrothermal method. The thermogravimetric analysis/differential thermal analysis (TGA–DTA) and Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR) showed that sucrose acted as a complexing agent in the synthesis process and assisted combustion during annealing. Photocatalytic activity was evaluated using the degradation of organic dye methyl orange. The sucrose added ZnO flowers showed improved activity, which was mainly attributed to the better crystallinity as confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The effect of sucrose amount on photocatalytic activity was also studied.