A facile synthesis of Ag Modified ZnO nanocrystals with enhanced photocatalytic activity

Ag modified ZnO (Ag/ZnO) nanocrystals were prepared by a facile and low temperature wet chemical method. The phase structures, morphologies, and optical properties of the as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), the Brumauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL) spectra, respectively. The photocatalytic performance of Ag/ZnO with diffent Ag contents was measured with the degradation of methyl orange (MO) at room temperature under UV light irradiation. The experimental results indicated that the well-crystalline ZnO nanopaticles with a size of ca. 4.5 nm exhibited a high photocatalytic activity for the degradation of MO with the apparent rate constant (k) of 1.57 ×10−2 min−1, and the photocatalytic activities of ZnO were further enhanced by modification with silver. When the Ag loading was 3mol%, Ag/ZnO showed the highest photocatalytic acitivity with a k value of 5.452×10−2 min−1, which is 3.5 and 2.5 time more than that of ZnO and commercial P25, respectively.