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Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity of Ag Doped ZnO Nanorods for Degradation of an Azo Dye
Author(s) -
Shokri Mohammad,
Isapour Ghodsieh,
Hosseini Mir Ghasem,
Zarbpoor Qamar
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
water environment research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1554-7531
pISSN - 1061-4303
DOI - 10.2175/106143016x14733681695168
Subject(s) - photocatalysis , nanorod , degradation (telecommunications) , doping , materials science , zinc , chemical engineering , chemistry , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , catalysis , metallurgy , organic chemistry , telecommunications , computer science , engineering
In this study, Ag‐ZnO nanophotocatalyst has been synthesized through microemulsion technique and the effect of silver modification on ZnO nanorods has been evaluated. The photocatalytic activity of nanocatalyst was examined by degradation of Acid Yellow 23 (AY23) as a model of mono azo dye under UV illumination. Ag‐ZnO catalyst was characterized by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDXS) and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) analysis. The degradation of AY23 was studied under different operational parameters. Results show that the photocatalytic reaction followed the pseudo‐first‐order kinetic. The highest photocatalytic degradation of 20 mg/L AY23 dye solution under UV irradiation (light intensity = 50 W/m 2 , [Ag‐ZnO] 0 = 400 mg/L with 2 wt% Ag doped ZnO, calcined at 450 °C) was about 93.3% during 30 minutes of reaction that shows an enhancement in comparison to pure ZnO which was 65.48%.