One-pot synthesis of Ag nanoparticles/ZnO nanorods heterostructures for organic dyes decoloring

Synthesis of silver/zinc oxide heterostructured nanorods (Ag/ZnO HNRs) is demonstrated via a simple one-step solvothermal method. The size of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs) are tuned by controlling the amount of AgNO 3 and the optimized decoration of AgNPs significantly enhance the utilization of visible light. Particularly, the Ag/ZnO HNRs samples are used to examine the photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MO) and reduction of potassium dichromate (K 2 Cr 2 O 7 ). The obtained results display that the Ag/ZnO HNRs possess surprising photocatalytic activities towards the removal of MO and reduction of K 2 Cr 2 O 7 . Further, the photocatalytic activities are related with the size of AgNPs and the length of ZnO NRs. Finally, the investigation towards the degradation of other dye molecules such as rhodamine B (RhB), and methyl blue (MB) along with MO at higher concentrations from morning to evening upon exposing sunlight under static condition. The present work could provide a further insight into the synthesis of ZnO based heterostructured photocatalysts and their application in efficient water treatment under natural conditions.