Microwave-assisted synthesis and photocatalytic performance of Ag-doped hierarchical ZnO architectures

Hierarchical ZnO and Ag doped ZnO nanostructures have been successfully fabricated on a large scale using zinc acetate and silver nitrate as starting reactants via a microwave-assisted process. The structural and morphologies of the samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscope and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The photocatalytic property of the Ag/ZnO heterostructures is evaluated by photodegradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under UV–vis illumination. Results of photodegradation tests reveal that the Ag doped hierarchical ZnO microspheres show much better photocatalytic activity than pure ZnO nanomaterials. The excellent photocatalytic activities can be ascribed to the high effective electron–hole separation which results in the significant improvement of the photocatalytic activity of ZnO.

► Ag doped ZnO heterostructures has been synthesized via a novel microwave assisted one-step method.
► Inexpensive and nontoxic reagents are used, which reduces the cost of the product.
► The Ag/ZnO heterostructures exhibits excellent photocatalytic activity for Rhodamine B.