Antibacterial and photocatalytic properties of Ag/TiO₂/ZnO nano-flowers prepared by facile one-pot hydrothermal process

In this paper, a simple and efficient strategy of one-pot synthesis of Ag doped TiO₂/ZnO photocatalyst was developed using hydrothermal process. Simultaneous crystallization of Ag and ZnO crystals from their precursor solution containing P25 (TiO₂) NPs could form effectively bonded Ag/TiO₂/ZnO composite photocatalyst during hydrothermal treatment. Several analytical techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), FT-IR spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy have been used to characterize the resulting Ag/TiO₂/ZnO photocatalyst. Results showed that ZnO nano-flowers doped with TiO₂ and Ag NPs were formed by this simple facile one-step process. The unique properties of Ag NPs on binary semiconductor composite not only provide the decreased rate of electron-hole separation but also prevent from the loss of photocatalyst during recovery due to the fixed attachment of Ag and TiO₂ NPs on the surface of flower shaped large ZnO particles. Therefore, as-synthesized composite is an economically and environmentally friendly photocatalyst.