Abstract
Ag-ZnO nanocomposites were synthesized in an effective manner to produce uniformly structured nanowires. These nanocomposites were then used for mercury(II) reduction. Synthesis conditions, heat treatment, and other factors that affect the structure properties of the nanocomposite were extensively studied to optimize the synthesis conditions. Ag-ZnO nanocomposites were prepared by a sol-gel route. The specific surface area values for ZnO (Z), 0.4 wt % Ag-ZnO (AGZ-0.4), 0.8 wt % Ag-ZnO (AGZ-0.8), 1.2 wt % Ag-ZnO (AGZ-1.2) and 1.6 wt % Ag-ZnO (AGZ-1.6) nanocomposites were determined to be 60, 56, 53, 50 and 48 m(2)/g, respectively. The reduction of mercury(II) under visible light was used to study the photocatalytic performance of the nanocomposites. In terms of photocatalytic performance for mercury(II) reduction, AGZ-1.2 outperforms AGZ-1.6 by 0.99 times, AGZ-0.8 by 1.2 times, AGZ-0.4 by 1.98 times, and Z by 24.75 times.