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Zinc oxide (ZnO) microstructures were successfully fabricated by using the template free hydrothermal growth method. Crystalline phase, morphology, and elemental composition had been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). FESEM graphs had showed that hexagonal astray like morphology along micro sized particles. Synthesized microstructures of ZnO were hydrogenated at high temperature 500 °C to get reduced ZnO microstructures. Furthermore, ultraviolet-visible-near infrared (UV–Vis-NIR) spectroscopy had been employed to determine the optical absorbance of ZnO microstructures. The direct optical band gap of 2.1 eV was acquired by using Davis-Mott model for reduced ZnO microstructures. Hydrogenation of ZnO microstructures made the material photoactive under visible light region. Visible light active (VLA) performance of reduced ZnO microstructures improved photocatalytic degradation of pollutants under solar light irradiation. Photocatalytic performance of prepared ZnO microstructures and reduced ZnO microstructures were investigated by using methyl orange under solar light irradiation.