Type-II nanorod heterostructure formation through one-step cation exchange.

A novel one-step cation exchange approach has been developed to prepare ZnO-decorated ZnSe nanorods (ZnSe-ZnO NRs), a prototype type-II semiconductor nanoheterostructure. Because of the staggered band offset which promoted effective charge separation, the as-synthesized ZnSe-ZnO NRs exhibited remarkable photocatalytic activities under visible light illumination, demonstrating their promising potentials in relevant photoconversion applications.