Elsevier, Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 4(20), p. 1602-1607, 2014
DOI: 10.1016/j.jiec.2013.08.006
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Highly visible light active 1% and 3% Ag@ZnO nanocomposites were synthesized via a gel combustion route using citric acid as a fuel. The formation of the nanocomposites with enhanced properties was confirmed using a range of characterization techniques, photocatalysis and photoelectrochemical studies. Compared to the pristine ZnO nanoparticles, the Ag@ZnO nanocomposites exhibited enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue and photoelectrochemical response. A mechanism was proposed to account for the photocatalytic activities of the Ag@ZnO nanocomposite that showed the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of Ag is an effective way of enhancing the visible light photocatalytic activities.