A novel preparation of porous spong-shaped Ag/ZnO heterostructures and their potent photocatalytic degradation efficiency

Abstract Porous spong-shaped Ag/ZnO heterostructures have been produced by combining electrospinning and photoreduction method. Structure and component of Ag/ZnO samples were characterized by XRD, XPS, EDS and DRS. Morphology was studied by SEM and TEM. The photocatalysis properties were verified by degradation of methyl orange dye. From the results, the Ag/ZnO heterostructures could degrade methyl orange efficiently under UV-light irradiation, which is much better than pure ZnO without Ag. The synthetic mechanism of porous spong-shaped ZnO and the mechanism for silver enhanced photocatalytic activity have been also conjectured.