Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a metal oxide material that is interested in research due to its possibility of bandgap tailoring, doping with various types of materials as well as being able to form many structures from zero-dimensional to three-dimensional structures. All these properties allow ZnO to be used in broad applications. Several research studies have been reported on the synthesis of ZnO nanostructures by the physical vapour deposition (PVD) technique. One of the potential PVD technique is thermal evaporation process. Generally, the technique is used to grow thin-film but researchers have found a potential to be used in the growth of nanostructures due to the ability to provide high crystallinity with homogeneous and uniform nanostructures. This analysis will therefore explore more about the thermal evaporation synthesized ZnO nanostructures and the application as photocatalyst material in wastewater treatment.
Increasing populations of about 29.24 million people in Malaysia along with rapid improvement and development results in increasing of the energy usage demands [1]. It is estimated that primary sources of energy consumption in the world is 86.4 % from fossil fuels which consists of 36.0 % from petroleum, 27.4 % from coal, 23.0 % from natural gas [2]. However, fossil fuels energy sources are non-renewable and also contribute to pollution. In order to fulfill the needs of energy used, solar light is expected to become a leading next-generation for clean and sustainable energy resources. The main interest of solar energy over other energy sources is that sunlight can be directly harvested into solar energy with the use of small and tiny photovoltaic (PV) solar cells [3].
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