Graphene–Ag/ZnO nanocomposites as high performance photocatalysts under visible light irradiation
By M. Ahmad, E. Ahmed, Zhanglian Hong, N. R. Khalid, W. Ahmed, A. Elhissi. 2013
161 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Abstract Visible-light-responsive Graphene–Ag/ZnO nanocomposites were fabricated using a facile, one-pot, nontoxic solvothermal process for the photodegradation of organic dyes. During the solvothermal process reduction of graphene oxide and loading of Ag-doped ZnO nanoparticles on two-dimensional graphene sheets were achieved. Electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, BET surface area measurements, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffraction were used to confirm that the Ag-doped ZnO nanoparticles as randomly dispersed and effectively decorated on graphene sheets via covalent bonds between Zn and C atoms. Optical properties studied using UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy confirmed that the absorption edge of Ag-doped ZnO shifted to visible-light region with the incorporation of graphene. The as-synthesized Graphene–Ag/ZnO nanocomposites showed unprecedented photodecomposition efficiency compared to the Ag-doped ZnO, pristine ZnO and commercial ZnO under visible-light. The textile mill effluent containing organic substances was also treated using photocatalysis and the reduction in the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the treated effluent revealed a complete destruction of the organic molecules along with colour removal. This dramatically enhanced photoactivity of the composite which is attributed to retarded charge recombination rate, great adsorption of dyes, enhanced visible light absorption and fast transfer processes. This research has the potential to provide new avenues for the in situ fabrication of the Graphene–Ag/ZnO composites as highly efficient photocatalysts.
Subfields: Materials Chemistry, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bb79f309ff5ef9c2f25a55b78558615cafb48872
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In Materials Chemistry
In Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Citations in the corpus
- Adsorptive and photocatalytic removal of reactive dyes by silver nanoparticle-colemanite ore waste (2014, background): “The contamination of water has been a serious problem in last decades [1].”