New and highly efficient Ag doped ZnO visible nano photocatalyst for removing of methylene blue

Due to excellent properties, recently ZnO nanomaterials are used as very efficient photocatalysts for the photocatalytic degradation of toxic organic dyes and chemicals under various light radiations. In this article we used a new and simple method for synthesis of high efficient Ag_xZn_1−xO (x = 0, 0.3, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6) nano photocatalyst in visible region. The process is simple, cost-effective and can be easily scaled-up. It was shown that the catalytic behavior of ZnO that is synthesized with this method has good efficiency about 63% for degradation of methylene blue in visible-light illumination.With doping of a little (0.5%) Ag the photocatalytic activity in the visible-light range is notably improved with a maximum effeciency of 98% degradation of methylene blue. In this work Ag doped and oxygen vacancy defects on the surface of ZnO nanoparticles benefit the separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs, thus lead to enhancing the photocatalytic activity. The properties of the nanoparticles were characterized by the employments of UV–Vis spectroscopy (UV–Vis), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR),photoluminescence (PL), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and scanning energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS).