Structural, morphological, optical and electrochemical characterization of Ag2O/ZnO and ZnO/Ag2O nanocomposites

In this paper, well-crystalline Ag2O/ZnO and ZnO/Ag2O nanocomposites were prepared by a facile chemical method. Structural, morphological and optical properties of the nanocomposite were studied using various advanced characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-Visible (UV-Vis) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The Ag2O and ZnO were clearly identified in the composite from SEM and TEM. Significant shifting observed in the both UV-Vis and PL spectroscopy. In addition, electrocatalytic activity of the Ag2O/ZnO and ZnO/Ag2O nanocomposites studied by an electrochemical workstation. The ZnO/Ag2O nanocomposites showed better optical and electrochemical properties due to decorating the low-band gap Ag2O on the surface of hexagonal structure ZnO nanoparticles. © 2022, S.C. Virtual Company of Phisics S.R.L. All rights reserved.RSP-2021/293; King Saud University, KSU: 40/is2Dr. G. Murugadoss would like to acknowledge to the management of Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India for provided lap facilities. The author (Wahidah H. Al-Qahtani) thank and This work was funded by the Researchers Supporting Project Number (RSP-2021/293) King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. One of author (Manavalan Rajesh Kumar) thanks to the contract no. 40/is2