Simple and rapid synthesis of mesoporous nanosheet-based ZnO hierarchical structure loaded with metal nanoparticles

In this paper, mesoporous nanosheet-based ZnO hierarchical structures decorated with Ag nanoparticles were synthesized via a simple, rapid, environment-friendly and cost-effective one pot synthesis approach using NaOH as the precipitating agent. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy were performed in order to investigate the morphology, crystalline structure and molecular nature of the as-synthesized composite. Several rod shaped nanosheets assembled as petals were synthesized with metal particles well-dispersed on their surface. The photocatalytic performance of the nanocatalyst was tested using Rhodamine B (RhB) as the organic pollutant and results revealed that Ag/ZnO composites have higher photocatalytic efficiency as compared to pure ZnO. ZnO composites also showed enhanced antibacterial property in the zone of inhibition test using Escherichia coli (E.coli) as the bacterial strain.