Preparation and Characterization of Mesoporous ZnO by Microemulsion Method

A simple route to synthesize mesoporous ZnO nanoparticle was proposed using polystyrene microemulsion system composed of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide(CTAB) /styrene(ST)/zinc nitrate/ammonium persulfate(AP).The effect of calcining temperature on the structures characteristic of the synthesized mesoporous ZnO was investigated,and the possible mechanism of pore formation was proposed.The results showed that as the calcining temperature is higher,the pore of the as-prepared ZnO is bigger,and the specific surface area is smaller.The specific surface area,pore volume and pore size distribution of the synthesized mesoporous zinc oxide calcined at 500 ℃ are 11.013 m2/g,0.135 cm3/g and 40.2 nm,respectively.Moreover,the photodegradation of methylene blue was carried out using mesoporous zinc oxide as photocatalyst,and all the synthesized mesoporous zinc oxide exhibited high photocatalytic activity.