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

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, AZ(1:1) NC achieved better photocatalytic activity than AZ(1:2) and AZ(2:1) composition. Therefore, the present study demonstrated the viability of the Ag-ZnO NCs in remediation of environmental pollutant and treatment of waste water.

Automated summary

Silver/Zinc Oxide nanocomposites (Ag-ZnO NCs) with varying weight percentages of both Ag and ZnO were studied for their photocatalytic activity. The experiment results showed that the concentrations of Ag and ZnO affected the photocatalytic activity of the nanocomposites, with AZ(1:1) NC achieving the best performance. This study demonstrated the potential application of Ag-ZnO NCs in the remediation of environmental pollutant and treatment of wastewater.