Enhanced photocatalytic activity of ZnO nanostructure for water purification

A study of the ZnO nanowire array photocatalysis performance has been carried out under UV radiation for the degradation of the toxic organic compounds such as methylene blue (MB), methyl orange (MO), and acid red 14 (AR14) dyes, which are commonly used in textile and pharmaceutics industries. UV–Vis spectrometry has been used to follow the dye degradation characterization. The degradation mechanism has been proposed for each dye, which will give a reasonable explanation about different degradation degree under same experimental conditions. MB and AR14 showed a better degradation performance than MO.