SYNTHESIS of Ag-DOPED ZnO NANOFIBERS USING ELECTROSPINNING METHOD and THEIR PHOTOCATALYTIC ACTIVITIES

Silver (Ag) doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanofibers with 1 at.% and 3 at.% Ag content were prepared using the electrospinning technique and their structural, morphological and photocatalytic properties were investigated. Pure ZnO nanofibers were also prepared with the same procedure for structure and property related comparison purposes. The photocatalytic activity of the Ag doped ZnO nanofibers were determined as a function of Ag content by exploring the degradation behavior of methylene blue under UV light irradiation. It was found that photocatalytic ability of fibers was improved with Ag addition and higher Ag incorporation resulted higher methylene blue degradation rate. For pure ZnO fibers, the degraded amount of dye was 52% of its initial amount after 270 min of UV irradiation time. For the same irridation time, 60% and 67% decomposition ratios of the dye molecules were achieved with the fibers containing 1 at.% Ag and 3 at.% Ag, respectively. The origin of the improvement of photocatalytic activity in Ag doped ZnO nanofibers was attributed to the substitutional incorporation of Ag ions into Zn sites within the ZnO crystal. The substitutional incorporation has been proved with the positional shift of the XRD diffraction lines.