The zinc oxide thin films on aluminum foil have been successfully prepared by sol–gel method with methyl glycol as solvent. The film was characterized by means of XRD, TG, UV–vis, SEM and AFM, which show that the ZnO/Al film is formed by a layer of ZnO nano-sized particles with average diameter of 52.2 nm. Under the initial concentration of 20 mg/L phenol solution (500 mL) and visible light irradiation time of 3 h, more than 40% of the initial phenol was totally mineralized using two pieces of ZnO/Al thin film as photocatalyst with an efficient irradiation area of 400 cm 2. It is a promising visible light responded photocatalyst for the activation of O 2 at room temperature to degrade organic pollutants.