Hydrothermal Synthesis of Flower-Like CuO/ZnO/SiNWs Photocatalyst for Degradation of R6G under Visible Light Irradiation

Flower-like CuO/ZnO/SiNWs nanostructures were successfully synthesized on SiNWs substrates using a simple hydrothermal method. The characteristics of the CuO/ZnO/SiNWs nanostructures were investigated through scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and UV–vis spectrophotometer. SEM images revealed shape transitions when the precursor mass ratic increased from 50:50 to 5:95. The strong intensity and narrow width of XRD peaks indicate that CuO/ZnO nanostructures with high molarities have good crystallinity. The UV–vis spectro-photometer indicate that ultraviolet emissions shift slightly toward lower wavelengths with incr-easing precursor solution molarity and that the intensity increases with improvement in CuO/ZnO/SiNWs crystallization.The mechanism of CuO/ZnO/SiNWs for improvement in photocatalytic activity was also discussed.