Facile preparation of ZnO/Ag2CO3 heterostructured nanorod arrays with improved photocatalytic activity

ZnO nanorod arrays (NRAs) are successfully decorated with Ag2CO3 nanoparticles via the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) technique. The content of Ag2CO3 is controlled by changing the times of SILAR. The average diameter of ZnO is about 200 nm, and the sizes of Ag2CO3 nanoparticles vary from 50 to 100 nm. Comparison with pure ZnO NRAs, ZnO/Ag2CO3 NRAs show an enhancement of absorption in the visible region, and the absorption intensity in the visible region enhances with the increasing of Ag2CO3 content. The photocatalytic result shows that ZnO/Ag2CO3 NRAs exhibit superior photocatalytic activity than pure ZnO in degrading of rhodamine B (RhB) water solution under simulated sunlight illumination. When the molar ratio of Ag/Zn is about 3.65%, ZnO/Ag2CO3 NRAs exhibit the highest photocatalytic activity.