Influence of Ag size and shape in dye photodegradation using silver nanoparticle/ZnO nanohybrids and polychromatic light

Engineering anisotropic silver nanoparticles/TiO2 nanocomposites and its photodegradation process optimization under polychromatic light irradiation

“…In previous work, we reported synthesis and characterization of silver nanoparticles with different shapes and sizes [17] . Once prepared, the deposition of the silver nanoparticles onto a commercial P25 TiO 2 followed the use 3‐MPA chemistry as a bifunctional ligand between the metal oxide and silver nanostructures to overcome TiO 2 /AgNP high interfacial energy due to incompatibility in the lattice parameters between the species [42,47] .…”

“…Silver nanostructures of different sizes and shapes (i. e., spheres, prisms, and rods) were synthesized by the chemical reduction method according to our previous work. [17] Briefly: nanospheres synthesis of AgNO 3 aqueous solution occurred in two steps: (i) silver ions were reduced using different amounts of sodium borohydride and TSS as reductant and stabilizing agents at 50 °C. (ii) The solution temperature was raised to 90 °C and pH adjusted to 10 by NaOH 1.0 M addition under magnetic stirring to allow nanospheres growth.…”

“…In previous work, we reported synthesis and characterization of silver nanoparticles with different shapes and sizes. [17] Once prepared, the deposition of the silver nanoparticles onto a commercial P25 TiO 2 followed the use 3-MPA chemistry as a bifunctional ligand between the metal oxide and silver nanostructures to overcome TiO 2 /AgNP high interfacial energy due to incompatibility in the lattice parameters between the species. [42,47] Annealing process (heat under vacuum conditions) eliminates 3-MPA molecules allowing direct adsorption of silver on the TiO 2 surface to increase electric contact due to the heterojunction formation (Figure 1a).…”

“…Among noble metals, silver nanoparticles (AgNP) seem the smartest choice in the novel TiO 2 /AgNP nanocomposite materials engineering for environmental applications due some advantages as the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) visible‐light‐induced absorption, high stability, easy synthetic routes, and lower costs than other noble metal NPs [15–20] . In addition, the AgNP Femi level is lower than those of TiO 2 , favoring the creation of a Schottky barrier at materials heterojunction that allows an efficient separation of charge carriers [20,21] .…”

“…[13,14] Among noble metals, silver nanoparticles (AgNP) seem the smartest choice in the novel TiO 2 /AgNP nanocomposite materials engineering for environmental applications due some advantages as the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) visible-light-induced absorption, high stability, easy synthetic routes, and lower costs than other noble metal NPs. [15][16][17][18][19][20] In addition, the AgNP Femi level is lower than those of TiO 2 , favoring the creation of a Schottky barrier at materials heterojunction that allows an efficient separation of charge carriers. [20,21] Moreover, the generation and transfer of AgNP plasmon photoexcited electrons -the so-called hot electronsto semiconductor conducting band can generate a local high electromagnetic field, increasing the redox ability of the composite nanomaterial.…”