title: Flower-like ZnO-Ag2O composites: precipitation synthesis and photocatalytic activity.
abstract: Ag2O-decorated flower-like ZnO composites were fabricated through a chemical precipitation process. X-ray diffraction analysis confirms the co-existence of cubic Ag2O and wurtzite ZnO phases. Scanning electron microscopy images reveal Ag2O nanoparticles located on the rough surface of ZnO flowers. The photocatalytic activities of the composites with various mole ratios were evaluated by the degradation of methyl orange (MO) under ultraviolet irradiation, which confirms that the composite shows superior activity to that of pure ZnO and Ag2O. The improvement can be ascribed to the deposited Ag2O forming the p-n junction at the interface of ZnO and Ag2O, resulting in the transfer of photocarriers and suppressing the electron-hole recombination rate.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Photonic and Electric Bandgap Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Harbin Normal University, Harbin 150025, People's Republic of China. xulingling_hit@163.com.
authors.forename: Lingling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Weilong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hailin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Chunyan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Jixin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Che