Phyto-mediated synthesis of Ag-Au bimetallic ZnO photocatalyst

Abstract

Chemical and physical methods of nanomaterial (NM) synthesis involve the use and/or production of noxious chemicals and/or by-products. Bio-mediated synthesis of NM is an alternative to these methods and involve synthesis using plant extracts. In this work, biogenic synthesis of silver-gold bimetallic zinc oxide nanocomposite (Ag-Au bimetallic ZnO NC) has been performed using the leaf extract of tea plant. The active involvement of tea-phytochemicals for functioning as reducing as well as capping agents were identified from the bonding information. The presence of Ag and Au bimetals in the sample resulted into surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band, which was further confirmed from Energy dispersive X-ray analysis. Formation of a mixture of quasi-spherical and hexagonal particles were confirmed from Transmission electron microscopic technique. The as-synthesized sample exhibited high degradation efficiency of Methylene blue dye under visible light irradiation within 60 min following SPR degradation mechanism.