Au/ZnO hybrid nanocomposites and their optical and photocatalytic properties
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Au/ZnO hybrid nanocomposites and their optical and photocatalytic properties Naeem‑ur‑Rehman1,2 · Mazhar Mehmood2 · Syed Mansoor Ali3 · Shahid M. Ramay3 · Turki S. Alkhuraiji4 Received: 19 March 2020 / Accepted: 11 August 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Au decorated zinc oxide nanorods have been synthesized by adopting a multistep chemical method. Initially the surface of synthesized nanorods have been functionalized by dipping the sample in potassium iodide solution and then Au nanoparticles were decorated on these rods by subsequent dipping in H AuCl4 solution. The size of Au particles and covering of ZnO nanorods by these particles were studied as a function of reaction time in the H AuCl4 solution. The photoluminescence spectra exhibit two emission bands at 371 and 575 that corresponds to the band edge emission and defect related emissions, respectively. The photocatalytic activity of the nanostructures that are prepared on the substrate has been tested for degradation of RhB by the illumination of ultra violet light on the nanostructures produced by commercially available lower power UV lamp. Keywords Nanocomposites · Photocatalytic · FESEM · Electrodeposition · Photoluminescence
1 Introduction Composite nanostructures exhibit unique optical and electronic properties. For example, ZnO/ZnS and ZnO/V 2O5 core/shell nanostructures [1], CdSe/ZnS Quantum dots [2], ZnO/TiO2 nano-composites arrays [3], WO3/ZnO nanorods arrays [4], ZnTe/ZnO nano-heterostructures [5], graphene oxide/ZnO nanorods hybrids [6] and Cu2O/ZnO composite structures [7] have been synthesized to tailor optical, electrical and photo-catalytic properties.
* Naeem‑ur‑Rehman [email protected] * Syed Mansoor Ali [email protected] 1
Department of Physics, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, Rahim Yar Khan 64200, Pakistan
2
Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, National Center for Nanotechnology, Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS), Nilore, Islamabad 45650, Pakistan
3
Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
4
National Center for Irradiation Technology, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
In metal–semiconductor composite systems, metals attached with semiconductors have electron storage capability, which facilitates charge separation [8]. Fermi level of this composite system can be tuned by varying the size of the attached metal nanoparticles [9]. Gold and silver metals have been popular metals to construct the metal–semiconductor nano-composite structures. ZnO nanostructures decorated with gold nanoparticles have been successfully utilized in many applications such as glucose biosensors [10], photo-electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells [11] and photo-catalytic activity for the degradation of organic pollutants, exhibiting strong [12]. One major application of metal–semiconductor composite syste
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