Photocatalytic property of silver enhanced Ag/ZnO composite catalyst

Abstract In this paper, floral ZnO, rod ZnO and Ag/ZnO with high purity and good crystallinity were successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method. The samples are tested by photocatalysis under UV (ultraviolet) light. The PL (photoluminescence) results show that the addition of Ag enhances the electron-hole separation efficiency of ZnO, which is conducive to photocatalysis. 5% Ag/ZnO has the best photocatalytic activity in the UV region and the degradation rate reaches 95.3% when the irradiation time is 70 minutes. Floral ZnO and rod ZnO have little difference in degradation rate under ultraviolet light.