Laser-assisted deposition of Ag on self-sourced growth ZnO nanorods as reusable photocatalysts for water purification

ZnO nanorods - Ag (ZnO NRs-Ag) have been fabricated using a simple and environment-friendly hydrothermal technique by immersing the zinc (Zn) metal foils in pure water under 95 °C hydrothermal condition followed by depositing Ag using a laser ablation technique. The formation of ZnO NRs-Ag is confirmed via XRD, FESEM analysis, and optical spectroscopy. The concentration of Ag can be controlled by varying the Ag deposition time, with 0.3 % obtained for 1 min ablation and 1.7 % for 5 min ablation. ZnO NRs-Ag have been tested for photocatalytic activity for Rhodamine 6G (R6G) degradation under UV AB tube luminescent (TL) lamps. The ZnO NRs-Ag with 5 min Ag PLD duration can achieve the best photocatalytic activity during 120 min of UV AB irradiation, with R6G degraded amount of 86 %. During three cycles of photocatalytic testing, all samples have shown 13–25 % decrease in R6G degradation, indicating that they are stable and reusable. Further, the degradation kinetics constant (k_app) is also determined using Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) model with for all samples.