%0 journal article %@ 2213-3437 %A Smazna, D., Shree, S., Polonskyi, O., Lamaka, S., Baum, M., Zheludkevich, M., Faupel, F., Adelung, R., Kumar Mishra, Y. %D 2019 %J Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering %N 2 %P 103016 %R doi:10.1016/j.jece.2019.103016 %T Mutual interplay of ZnO micro- and nanowires and methylene blue during cyclic photocatalysis process %U https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2019.103016 2 %X Water purification through photocatalysis is the most important requirement due to the increased health, environmental and energy conservation concerns. Metal oxide nanostructures have played a very prominent role in this direction. ZnO is a promising material in terms of nanostructuring and photocatalysis. This study presents a unique easy-to-follow synthesis for ZnO micro- and nanowires by a flame-based approach. The photocatalytic activity of these grown ZnO nano- and microwires against methylene blue (MB) has been investigated in detail and a possible decomposition pathway is proposed. During repeated photocatalysis, a significant improvement in the decomposition rate was achieved which is mainly attributed to surface modifications of the ZnO wires due to the reaction with MB as confirmed by Raman-spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) investigations. The impact of the MB over involved nanostructures is thus an important aspect for the efficiency of the photocatalysis which is briefly presented here.