Cationic surfactant controlled synthesis of Ag2ZrO3 and Ag/Ag2ZrO3: An efficient visible light active photocatalysts

Here we report the optimized route for the synthesis of zero valent silver loaded silver zirconate (Ag/Ag2ZrO3) nanocomposite via a facile co-precipitation method for enhancing the visible light harvesting ability of silver zirconate (Ag2ZrO3) by employing the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect of Ag0 loaded on Ag2ZrO3 and their photocatalytic efficiency has been investigated. The effect of the use of surfactant cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide on the formation of both Ag/Ag2ZrO3 nanocomposite and bare Ag2ZrO3 has been studied. As-synthesized Ag/Ag2ZrO3 and Ag2ZrO3 have been further confirmed by using XRD, FESEM, HRTEM, and XPS analysis. The structural and morphological analysis of the Ag/Ag2ZrO3 nanocomposite confirmed the existence of the metallic Ag in a mixed-phase on the surface of the Ag2ZrO3. The Ag/Ag2ZrO3 nanocomposite exhibits almost 100% degradation of 6 ppm Methylene Blue dye in just 60 min (6.9E-2 min−1) in comparison to bare Ag2ZrO3. Furthermore, •OH is found to be the most reactive species responsible for the degradation of MB in case of Ag/Ag2ZrO3 photocatalyst, while •O2− is pre dominant reactive species in the case of bare Ag2ZrO3. Both catalysts were found to be chemically stable with retention of photocatalytic efficiency even up to the six photocatalytic cycles.