Synthesis of Ag-doped ZnO nanoparticles for the photocatalytic degradation of phenol and dyes

¹ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10900, Thailand
² Department of Microbiology, School of Science, RK University, Rajkot 360020, Gujarat, India
³ Department of Physics, School of Science, RK University, Rajkot 360020, Gujarat, India

^* Corresponding Author: fscisjn@ku.ac.th

Abstract

The morphological, optoelectronic, and dye degrading properties of Ag doped ZnONPs are reported herein which were fabricated using different concentrations of Ag and a hydrothermal method. The size of ZnONPs ranged from 33 to 45 nm. UV-Visible spectroscopy revealed a red- shift of the absorbance spectra confirming band gap reduction after Ag doping. The four luminescence peaks for the ZnONPs included a blue luminescence peak between 440 and 470 nm, a green luminescence peak between 470 and 570, a yellow luminescence peak between 570 and 585 nm, and a red luminescence peak between 585 and 780 nm. Superior photocatalytic dye degradation was noted where the 5% Ag-doped ZnONPs exhibited 99.12 % photocatalytic phenol degradation after 24 h with a rate constant equivalent to 0.2099 k (min-1) while the rate constants of 2.5922 and 2.3392 k (min^-1) for the degradation of Rhodamine B and methylene blue dyes, respectively. Hence, the present Ag-doped ZnONPs should be further studied for diverse photocatalytic applications.