A facile gelatin-assisted preparation and photocatalytic activity of zinc oxide nanosheets

In the present work, ZnO nanosheets were prepared in a simple gelatin assisted pyrolytic process and characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), UV–vis spectrum, fluorescence spectrum and nitrogen adsorption. A growth mechanism for the ZnO nanosheets was proposed on the basis of thermogravimetric analysis (TG). Meanwhile, Rhodamine B (RhB) as a model pollutant was used to probe the photocatalytic activity of the ZnO nanosheets. The results show that the wurtzite ZnO nanosheets with high crystallinity can be obtained using this simple method. Gelatin plays an important role in the formation of the ZnO nanosheets. Moreover, the ZnO nanosheets would be an efficient photocatalyst for the degradation of RhB under UV irradiation.