A study on methylene blue degradation: enhanced photocatalytic activity of Ag-ZnO nanocomposities

Abstract

Silver/Zinc Oxide nanocomposites (Ag-ZnO NCs) were fabricated by varying the weight percentages of both Ag and ZnO for investigating its photocatalytic activity. The structural, morphology and optical response of the prepared nanocomposites were examined with PXRD, FESEM, TEM, EDAX, XPS, FT-IR, UV-vis-DRS and PL spectroscopy. The effect of Ag and ZnO concentrations on these nanocomposites was examinedby analyzing thephotocatalytic activity towards Methylene Blue (MB) dye degradationunder the UV irradiation. The overall results suggested that, AZ1:1 NC achieved better photocatalytic activity than AZ1:2 and AZ2:1 composition. Therefore, the present study demonstrated the viability of the Ag-ZnO NCs in remediation of environmental pollutant and treatment of waste water.