Preparation and Characterization of ZnO Hollow Spheres and ZnO−Carbon Composite Materials Using Colloidal Carbon Spheres as Templates

In this paper, a general strategy for synthesis of carbon-based core/ZnO-shell-type composite and hollow materials is reported. These materials include colloidal carbon spheres@ZnO nanospheres, ZnO−carbon composite “dandelions”, ZnO−carbon branched “dandelions”, Au−ZnO−carbon composite “dandelions”, and size-tunable hollow ZnO spheres. As-synthesized composite “dandelions” exhibited a color change, which originated from the surface plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles, showing their optical application. All products obtained show well photocatalytic activities and ZnO−carbon composite “dandelions” have the highest photocatalytic efficiency in all products.