Ethanol templated synthesis of microporous/mesoporous nano zinc oxide with multi-level structure and its outstanding photo-catalytic properties

Abstract The microporous/mesoporous nano zinc oxide with a multi-level structure was successfully synthesized via using ethanol template. Ethanol not only improves the crystallinity of nano-ZnO, but also induce pore structure which provides more active sites for photocatalysis. The specific B.E.T surface area of the nano-ZnO sample is 28.05m2/g, the pore volume is 0.069cm3/g, and the surface is covered with 1-30nm deep pits. The nanostructured structures at higher levels are composed of 300 to 500nm nanosheets. Compared with hard templates and other surfactant soft templates, this method of using Ethanol as a template not only has the advantages of green, simple reprocessing, and low price, but also provides an idea for synthesizing other multi-stage structures.