Efficient synthesis of Ag/AgCl/W18O49 nanorods and their antibacterial activities

In this work, a modified photochemical method has been employed to couple the W18O49 nanorods with the Ag/AgCl nanoparticles that consist of Ag shell and AgCl core. Due to the surface treatment process, the Ag/AgCl nanoparticles were homogeneously formed on the surfaces of W18O49 nanorods. By simply changing the concentration of Ag+ ions in the photochemical reaction system, the size of the Ag/AgCl nanoparticles could be controlled. In comparison with the bare W18O49 nanorods, the photocatalytic antibacterial activity of the Ag/AgCl/W18O49 nanorods is dramatically enhanced, which can be attributed to both the surface plasmon resonance of noble metal and the synergistic effect of plasmonic photocatalyst and oxide semiconductor photocatalyst. The present modified photochemical method is highly efficient and can be extended to prepare other oxide semiconductor-based plasmonic photocatalysts. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.