Light-induced photocatalytic degradation of stearic acid by c-axis oriented ZnO nanowires Original Research Article

The photocatalytic activity of highly c-axis oriented ZnO nanowires’ arrays grown on seeded glass substrates from aqueous solutions was investigated against the degradation of stearic acid under UV-A light illumination (365 nm). All chemically grown ZnO samples show very good crystallinity and high transmittance in the visible region. The nanowires’ diameter ranges from 35 ± 5 nm to 160 ± 10 nm depending on the grain size of the seed layer applied, while their length (1–1.2 μm) is mainly affected from growth time. It is demonstrated that ZnO nanowires’ arrays show superior photocatalytic activity compared with the stand-alone seed layers, probably due to their enhanced crystallinity and larger surface-to-volume ratio.