Kiriarachchi HD et al. (2019), Growth Mechanism of Sea Urchin ZnO Nanostructur...

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ACS Omega 2019 Aug 14;49:14013-14020. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.9b01772.

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Growth Mechanism of Sea Urchin ZnO Nanostructures in Aqueous Solutions and Their Photocatalytic Activity for the Degradation of Organic Dyes.

Kiriarachchi HD , Abouzeid KM , Bo L , El-Shall MS .

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This work reports the development of a fast and simple route for the synthesis of ZnO sea urchin (SU) nanostructures by the formation and assembly of ZnO nanorods under favorable growth conditions in an aqueous solution. The thermal treatment of a basic zinc acetate solution in ethanol results in the formation of aggregated seed clusters consisting of small ZnO nanorods, which were then grown in a precursor solution containing Zn(NO3)2·6H2O and hexamethylenetetramine to assemble the SU structures from the anisotropic ZnO nanorods on the surface of the seed clusters. Each ZnO nanoparticle in the aggregated seed clusters grew sequentially into a ZnO nanorod, and the nanorods were concentric to the core of the clusters yielding the unique SU-like shape. In the presence of a capping agent such as cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB), the aggregated seed clusters were not formed, and the growth of the CTAB-capped ZnO nanorods resulted in separated rods with average aspect ratios of ∼10. The SU ZnO nanostructures exhibit a hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure and higher specific surface area (26.9 m2/g) than the CTAB-capped nanorods (17.7 m2/g). The SU ZnO nanostructures show superior photocatalytic efficiency for the degradation of three common organic dyes compared to the ZnO nanorods. The removal efficiencies of indigo carmine, methylene blue, and rhodamine B by the SU nanostructures were 99, 86, and 96%, respectively, after 1 h of UV irradiation. Therefore, the ZnO SU structures have the potential to be a versatile photocatalyst for the photodegradation of organic dyes in industrial wastewater.

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Genes referenced: LOC100887844

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	Figure 1. TEM (a, b) and SEM (c, d) images of ZnO seeds.
	Figure 2. TEM images (a–d) showing the sequential growth of ZnO nanoparticles to form seed clusters at different time intervals of 5, 15, 30, and 60 min, respectively, from adding the base to the zinc acetate solution at 60 °C. (e) UV–vis spectra corresponding to the solutions used for images (a–d).
	Figure 3. TEM images showing the sequential growth of SU ZnO at different stages, 0 min (a), 15 min (b), 30 min (c), 60 min (d), and UV/vis spectra of the SU ZnO at different growth time intervals, as shown in (e).
	Figure 4. TEM images (a, b) and SEM images (c, d) of the SU ZnO nanostructures.
	Figure 5. XRD patterns of SU ZnO (a), ZnO seeds (b) and TEM images showing how the seeds transformed into SU-shaped ZnO.
	Figure 6. Raman spectra for SU ZnO and ZnO rods.
	Figure 7. Photocatalytic activity of SU ZnO in degrading organic dyes (a) Rh B, (b) IC, (c) MB and (d) the apparent rate constants for the photodegradation of Rh B, IC, and MB.
	Figure 8. Comparison of photocatalytic activities of SU ZnO and ZnO rods prepared using CTAB-capped ZnO seeds in photodegrading Rh B. (a, b) UV–visible spectra of Rh B showing photodegradation by SU ZnO and ZnO rods, respectively, and (c, d) kinetic plots of the photodegradation reaction by SU ZnO and ZnO rods, respectively.