Facile low-temperature synthesis of ZnO nanopyramid and its application to photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange dye under UV irradiation

ZnO nanopyramid-like nanostructures were grown by a low-temperature simple solution process. The detailed characterizations have shown that the ZnO nanostructures were single crystalline and had nanopyramid morphology with an average size of 50–100nm. The photocatalytic activity of ZnO NPys was evaluated for use in the degradation of methyl orange (MO) dye, and exhibited ~95% MO decomposition within 150min under UV irradiation.