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Effect of Ag2S shell thickness on the photocatalytic properties of ZnO/Ag2S core–shell nanorod arrays

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Abstract

ZnO/Ag2S core–shell nanorod arrays (NRAs) are successfully fabricated via chemical bath deposition procedure and subsequent successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) technique. The average diameter of ZnO core is about 100 nm, and the thicknesses of Ag2S shell are adjusted from 6 to 35 nm by varying the time of SILAR. ZnO/Ag2S NRAs show an enhancement of absorption in the visible region, and the absorption intensity in the visible region enhances with the increase in Ag2S shell thickness. Compared with pure ZnO NRAs, ZnO/Ag2S NRAs exhibit outstanding photocatalytic activity for degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) aqueous solution under simulated sunlight irradiation. In addition, ZnO/Ag2S NRAs with Ag2S shell thickness of 6 nm display the highest photocatalytic activity, which is 6.0 times higher than that of pure ZnO NRAs.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61378085, 51608226, 21776110) and program for the development of Science and Technology of Jilin province (Item Nos. 20180101206JC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Functional Materials Physics and Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Normal University, Siping, 136000, Jilin, China

    Xiuyan Li, Dongxu Liu, Zhu Shi & Jinghai Yang

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Correspondence to Xiuyan Li.

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Li, X., Liu, D., Shi, Z. et al. Effect of Ag2S shell thickness on the photocatalytic properties of ZnO/Ag2S core–shell nanorod arrays. J Mater Sci 54, 1226–1235 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-2930-z

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