Abstract: The research direction of improving photocatalytic activity of ZnO in recent years was reviewed to provide supports for broadening the range of ZnO photo-response，accelerating the separation of photogenerated electron hole pairs and improving the separation time of photogenerated hole pairs，including transition metal ions doping，noble metal compositing and preparation of compound ZnO with semiconductor，the photocatalytic activities of the catalysts were introduced. The development trend of ZnO based photocatalysts was also prospected.

Key words: ZnO, photocatalysis, doping, composite, heterostructure