Synthesis of silver/silver oxide heterostructures via partial reduction of AgNO3 using a novel green reducing agent

Abstract

Architecting the metal/metal oxide heterojunction-based photocatalysts, for the photodegradation of dyes, using natural plant extracts is an emerging strategy to deal with global water contamination. However, the limited availability of plant extracts and poor control of the reduction to achieve metal/metal oxide photocatalysts have hindered further research and development in this field. In this report, a novel plant source ‘Lactuca Serriola’ (LS, seed extract) has been explored to synthesize silver/silver oxide heterostructures (Ag/Ag2O HSs) by the partial reduction of AgNO3. As synthesized materials were fully characterized via various characterization techniques, such as a UV–Vis spectrophotometer (UV–Vis); X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The as-fabricated material not only degraded 100% crystal violet dye within 20 min but also demonstrated excellent catalytic activity to degrade nitrophenol. Bacterial activity results showed the effective anti-bacterial action of synthesized materials even at a very low dose (75μg/ml).