Optical, electrical, photocatalytic, and bactericidal properties of microwave synthesized nanocrystalline Ag–ZnO and ZnO

Nanocrystalline ZnO and Ag–ZnO (0.7 atom %) have been obtained by microwave synthesis and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, scanning electron micrography, UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, and impedance spectroscopy. The doped oxide exhibits surface plasmon resonance. Further, Ag-doping reduces the average crystallite size, sharpens the band gap absorption, suppresses the blue emission and decreases the charge transfer resistance. The microwave synthesized ZnO exhibits larger bactericidal activity than the commercial ZnO nanoparticles and doping with Ag by microwave method improves the antibacterial and photocatalytic activities. However, the photocatalytic activity of microwave synthesized ZnO, to detoxify cyanide in alkaline medium, does not differ significantly from that of commercial ZnO nanoparticles.

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