Photocatalytic activity of Ag-ZnO heterostructure for degradation of rhodamine B under direct sunlight

Ag‐ZnO heterostructure was obtained through a simple method that is suitable for general laboratory production. The X‐ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results showed that Ag‐ZnO heterostructure had excellent purity and crystalline properties. Meanwhile, the catalytic degradation results demonstrated that it had high photocatalytic activity to the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB). Besides, in order to explore the optimum catalytic activity of the sample, the influences of experimental parameters including additives, the amount of catalyst, the concentration and initial pH of RhB were studied in detail. Ag‐ZnO heterostructure was obtained through a simple one‐step solvothermal method. The obtained sample had excellent purity and crystalline properties. Meanwhile, it showed high photocatalytic activity to degradate rhodamine B. with NaBH4 as additive. Ag‐ZnO heterostructure can totally degrade the dye within 30 min, nearly two times as that of pure ZnO. The influences of experimental parameters on the degradation efficiency were analyzed.