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

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Abstract

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Yanling Dong  (董艳玲)

  2. Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Sha Zhan & Ping Wang  (王苹)

Authors
  1. Yanling Dong  (董艳玲)
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  2. Sha Zhan
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  3. Ping Wang  (王苹)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ping Wang  (王苹).

Additional information

Funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 20803055) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2010-1a-008, 2011-1a-39, 2011-1a-16)

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Dong, Y., Zhan, S. & Wang, P. A facile synthesis of Ag Modified ZnO nanocrystals with enhanced photocatalytic activity. J. Wuhan Univ. Technol.-Mat. Sci. Edit. 27, 615–620 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11595-012-0515-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11595-012-0515-2

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