Effect of solution concentration on surface morphology and photocatalytic activity of ZnO thin films synthesized by hydrothermal methods

ZnO thin films were synthesized via hydrothermal method on silicon substrate at various solution concentrations. The thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscope and UV–Vis spectrophotometer. The results show that the thin films are polycrystalline with wurtzite hexagonal structure. The Tc values of (101) surface of the thin film increase from 0.929 to 1.840 at first, and then decrease to 0.779 with increasing solution concentration. The preferential orientation along the (101) crystal surface can be controlled by changing the solution concentration. Solution concentration has a significant effect on surface morphology of the thin films. The optical band gap of the thin films decreases, when the solution concentration of zinc nitrate hexahydrate increases from 0.01 to 0.06 mol/L and then increases when the solution concentration of zinc nitrate hexahydrate further increases to 0.08 mol/L. Photocatalytic activity of the thin films on degradation of methyl orange under UV light irradiation was studied in detail. The ZnO thin film with many cracks prepared from 0.01 mol/L shows the higher photocatalytic activity but the tower-like ZnO thin film prepared from 0.08 mol/L reveals the lower photocatalytic activity. Therefore, the photocatalytic activity of the thin films are mainly relate to surface morphology and crystallographic orientation.