Abstract
Herein, an environmentally friendly green approach for the single-step synthesis of Ag/CuOx nanocomposite by generating plasma between two copper electrodes in an AgNO3 solution is reported. Morphological tunability of the CuOx nanoparticles from spindle to flower-like and then to wire-like is achieved by varying the concentration of the AgNO3 solution, which regulates toxic dye adsorption. Compositional analysis reveals the formation of oxygen vacancies, indicating the presence of sub-stoichiometric CuO due to the bombardment of plasma-generated species on the as-formed nanoparticle. The percentage of oxygen vacancies decreases with increasing the concentration of AgNO3 to fabricate the nanocomposites. At low Ag content in the Ag/CuOx nanocomposites, higher photocatalytic efficiency is observed than the bare CuOx nanoparticles, whereas for high Ag content, photocatalytic efficiency quenches. Electrochemical spectroscopy reveals an increase in the charge-transfer resistance with Ag content. A possible photo-degradation mechanism based on the trapping and transfer of photo-generated charge carriers between the defect-enriched CuOx and plasmonic Ag nanoparticles is presented. Charge carrier lifetime is investigated to support the photo-degradation mechanism. The effect of H2O2 on the photo-degradation by considering the band edge potential of CuOx nanoparticles is also discussed.
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