Organic dye pollutants in wastewater effluents, particularly from textile manufacturing, are a serious hazard to the health of individuals and the environment alike. This threat presents the need for an effective method of pollutant remediation in aquatic environments, and semiconductors such as ZnO have shown considerable promise as they adsorb and photocatalytically degrade these dye pollutants. A novel combination method was utilized to produce ZnO conjugate materials modified with the following gold nanoparticle shapes: seeds, rods, and triangles. Because the surfactant cetyl-trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) was essential to the synthesis of the gold seeds and rods and displayed unique promise in the adsorption of model pollutant Congo red dye, an additional ZnO composite material was modified with CTAB. These materials were heat treated at temperatures ranging from 100-900 °C and their removal efficiencies of Congo red dye from aqueous solutions were kinetically compared during irradiation with 365 nm and visible light. Ultimately, CTAB modified materials were the most capable of adsorbing large concentrations of Congo red from solution, and Au-rod modified materials were most useful for determining relative dye elimination trends based on particle shape. Materials were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and gold content was confirmed using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). Some X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis was performed to establish that low concentrations of gold particles were likely incorporated below the surface of the ZnO structure. Furthermore, solid-state UV-vis spectra were measured for the materials before and after adsorption to determine changes in modified material bandgaps and adsorption capacity. Future research in the area of gold and surfactant enhanced ZnO materials can provide efficient materials for the removal of dyes from aqueous environments.