Line defect Ce3+ induced Ag/CeO2/ZnO nanostructure for visible-light photocatalytic activity

Abstract

This article reports, synthesis and characterization of the ternary Ag/CeO2/ZnO nanostructure which was tested for visible light photocatalytic degradation of industrial textile effluent. The HR-TEM and XPS results confirms the presence of line dislocation linear defect induced oxygen vacancy in the ternary Ag/CeO2/ZnO nanostructure. The oxygen vacancy creates narrow band gap (2.66eV) was confirmed by DRS. The ternary Ag/CeO2/ZnO nanostructure showed superior photocatalytic activity compared with pure ZnO, ZnO/Ag and ZnO/CeO2 results because of the narrow band gap, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of Ag nanoparticles, synergistic effects, and defects (Ce3+ and oxygen vacancy) in CeO2 and ZnO. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.