SYNTHESIS of Ag-DOPED ZnO NANOFIBERS USING ELECTROSPINNING METHOD and THEIR PHOTOCATALYTIC ACTIVITIES

Abstract

Silver (Ag) doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanofibers with 1 at.% and 3 at.% Ag content were prepared using the electrospinning technique and their structural, morphological and photocatalytic properties were investigated. Pure ZnO nanofibers were also prepared with the same procedure for structure and property related comparison purposes. The photocatalytic activity of the Ag doped ZnO nanofibers were determined as a function of Ag content by exploring the degradation behavior of methylene blue under UV light irradiation. It was found that photocatalytic ability of fibers was improved with Ag addition and higher Ag incorporation resulted higher methylene blue degradation rate. For pure ZnO fibers, the degraded amount of dye was 52% of its initial amount after 270 min of UV irradiation time. For the same irridation time, 60% and 67% decomposition ratios of the dye molecules were achieved with the fibers containing 1 at.% Ag and 3 at.% Ag, respectively. The origin of the improvement of photocatalytic activity in Ag doped ZnO nanofibers was attributed to the substitutional incorporation of Ag ions into Zn sites within the ZnO crystal. The substitutional incorporation has been proved with the positional shift of the XRD diffraction lines.

Surface functionalized silver-doped ZnO nanocatalyst: a sustainable cooperative catalytic, photocatalytic and antibacterial platform for waste treatment

“…In the UV region, the band with a peak at 360 nm is due to the near band edge (NBE) emission owing to free exciton recombination. 49 The second emission band is in the visible region (423 nm), which can be attributed to the recombination of an electron–hole pair. In addition to this, intrinsic point defects formed such as zinc interstitials, antisite oxygen, oxygen and zinc vacancies, and the inclusion of hydroxyl groups in the crystal lattice through a growth process.…”

Fabrication, functionalization and performance of doped photocatalysts for dye degradation and mineralization: a review

“…Furthermore, doped nanofibres with 0.5% CuO exhibited maximum degradation of methylene blue dye under sunlight irradiation (Naseri et al 2017). Yildirim (2018) conducted a study for doping of ZnO with various silver (Ag) concentrations (1 and 3 wt%). Photocatalytic degradation study results revealed that synthesized composites were found to have higher degradation capacity for the methylene blue dye with the increasing Ag concentration (60% and 67% for 1 and 3 wt% of Ag, respectively) under UV light illumination, whereas it was observed to be much lower (52%) in the basic ZnO nanofibre (Yildirim 2018).…”