The impact of the Au/Ag ratio on the photocatalytic activity of bimetallic alloy AuAg nanoparticle-decorated ZnO nanorods under UV irradiation

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a semiconducting material that is widely used in photocatalytic applications. Unfortunately, due to the rapid electron-hole pair recombination, the photocatalytic efficiency of ZnO is very low. Creating new nanocomposites of ZnO with bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) is a promising research effort. In this study, the AuAg NPs were deposited onto ZnO nanorods (NRs) grown on a glass substrate using one-pot hydrothermal with five different molar ratios of the HAuCl4 and AgNO3 precursors (1:0, 3:1, 1:1, 1:3, and 0:1). The result shows that the photocatalytic dye degradation performance of ZnO/Au1Ag3 is comparable to that of ZnO/Au (49-50%, k = 0.00709 min (1)), which is twice as efficient as the performance of the pristine ZnO (25%, k = 0.00254 min (1)). The high number of deposited Au1Ag3 NPs roughened the surface of the nanocomposites, and their role in inhibiting the exciton recombination rates may have a significant effect on enhancing the photocatalytic activity of pristine ZnO.

Automated summary

Depositing AuAg bimetallic nanoparticles on ZnO nanorods can enhance the photocatalytic activity of ZnO, leading to improved photocatalytic dye degradation performance.