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.