Organic Pollutant Degradation in Water via Plasmon Mediated Photocatalysis Using Solar Active Ag/ZnO Nanostructures

• K, Kshirsagar jii

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The topic of this study is the efficient treatment using an in-situ produced Ag/ZnO nano catalyst. Zinc oxide nanoparticles with a plate shape
were produced during catalyst production by using starch as an eco-friendly surfactant. X-Ray Diffraction analysis verifies the presence of
hexagonal ZnO and fcc silver in the as-synthesized catalyst. XRD analysis also showed that the crystal structures of ZnO and Ag/ZnO are accurate,
with d-spacings of 0.26 nm and 0.234 nm, respectively. Because starch was present, the morphology shown by FESEM, EDX, and TEM was
spherical but flat plate type. UV-Vis spectrophotometry showed a reduction in band gap energies with increased silver loading, and XPS verified
the composition's oxygen richness. Sunlight was used to study the plasmonic catalysts' photocatalytic activity. Using absorption spectroscopy, we
were able to see the full degradation of organic dyes such as p-nitrophenol (PNP), Methylene Blue (MB), Rhodamine B (RhB), Methyl Orange
(MO), and Bromophenol Blue (BPB) in aqueous solutions. The catalyst's characteristics were maintained even after the third re cycling. An easy
way to cure effuently in the sun might be using this simple catalyst.

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