Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of a Series of Ag/ZnO Nanocomposites and Evaluation of Their Photocatalytic Activities under Multi-Mode Photodegradation

A series of Ag/ZnO nanocomposites were prepared under microwave irradiation of different powers (100, 200, and 300 W). The crystal structure, morphology, and surface physicochemical properties of the as-synthesized samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and nitrogen adsorption–desorption analyses. Compared with the Ag/ZnO prepared by conventional sedimentation process, the crystal structures of Ag and ZnO did not exhibit any transformation after microwave irradiation; however, slight increases or decreases were observed in their absorption spectra and the specific surface areas. Moreover, the morphologies of all Ag/ZnO samples were changed dramatically by microwave irradiation, showing morphologies such as octagonal nano-pyramidal and multi-angled nano-pyramidal. The multi-mode photocatalytic degradation studies showed that the photocatalytic activities of the Ag/ZnO nanocomposites prepared under microwave irradiation of different powers were enhanced to different extents and were much higher than that of P25, ZnO, and Ag/ZnO prepared in the absence of microwave irradiation.