Materials Research Bulletin, Vol.48, No.6, 2066-2070, 2013
Synthesis of ZnO/Ag/graphene composite and its enhanced photocatalytic efficiency
ZnO/Ag/graphene composite was synthesized via a facile low-temperature aqueous solution reaction. The morphology and crystal phase of the obtained samples were well characterized by SEM, TEM, and XRD. The results indicated that ZnO/Ag nanoparticles (NPs) are anchored on the two-dimensional graphene sheet. The photocatalytic trials, confirmed that the ZnO/Ag/graphene composite exhibited improved photocatalytic efficiency compared with the ZnO/Ag NPs and pristine ZnO NPs. The increased photocatalytic activity of ZnO/Ag/graphene was attributed to the effective charge separation and the suppressed recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Moreover, the ZnO/Ag/graphene sample showed excellent stability after four photodegradation cycling runs. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved: