One-pot synthesis of ZnO decorated with AgBr nanoparticles and its enhanced photocatalytic properties

Shuttle-like AgBr–ZnO nanocomposites were successfully synthesized via a facile chemical precipitation method using CTAB as both an cationic surfactant and Br− source. The structure, composition and morphology of the as-synthesized products were characterized by means of powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) and the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area measurements. The results revealed that the as-synthesized samples were single crystalline nanostructures with a shuttle-like morphology. The reaction temperature played an important role in the composition and morphology of the products. When the temperature was increased from 40 °C to 80 °C, the components of corresponding products changed from binary Ag–ZnO to ternary Ag–AgBr–ZnO, then to binary AgBr–ZnO, and the morphology underwent a change from aggregated nanoparticles to regular shuttle-like shaped crystals with diameters of ca. 200 nm and lengths of ca. 600 nm. Significantly, the as-prepared AgBr–ZnO nanocomposites showed enhanced photocatalytic properties for the degradation of Rhodamine B in aqueous solution under UV irradiation with a filter (λ = 365 nm) in comparison to the pure ZnO nanomaterials.