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Abstract
Introduction: Herein, we prepared Zinc oxide (ZnO) and silver (Ag) doped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) using a simple, fast, effective and economic coprecipitation method. The superior characteristics in the nanoscale range of ZnO encourage us to work on the ZnO NPs. Also, Ag has long been employed for its antibacterial qualities. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicate a hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO NPs and an additional peak corresponding to the metallic Ag phase in the Ag-ZnO sample. The EDAX elemental mapping confirms the uniform distribution of Ag in ZnO NPs. Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy investigates electronic structure and defects in NPs.
Methods: According to the PL study, the strong photoluminescence NBE observed at 393 nm, indicating the high crystalline quality of the material and broad blue-green emission at 467 nm and green-yellow emission at 560 nm were attributed to the Zn interstitial and oxygen vacancy defects present in ZnO NPs. Measurements from cyclic voltammetry (CV) demonstrate approximately symmetric peaks related to anodic and cathodic behaviours of the NPs based electrode.
Results: For ZnO sample, the anodic peak was found at 0.49 V and cathodic at 0.29 V, whereas, for Ag-ZnO sample, the anodic peak was at 0.59 V, and the cathodic peak was present at 0.19 V, respectively. The separation between cathodic and anodic peaks enhanced with Ag-doping in ZnO, which could be associated with the variations in the transfer of electrons at the interface between the working electrode and the solution, confirming an increase in the reaction activity of Ag-ZnO NPs.
Conclusion: The results indicate that Ag-doped ZnO NPs may be an efficient catalyst for waste water treatment and photocatalytic applications.
