Synthesis, characterization, low temperature solid state PL and photocatalytic activities of Ag₂O·CeO₂·ZnO nanocomposite.

A novel multi-metal nanocomposite oxide Ag2O·CeO2·ZnO has been prepared by co-precipitation of their carbonates from aqueous solutions of the metal nitrates following calcinations and annealing 5h at 450°C and 4h at 600°C. Ag2O·CeO2·ZnO has been characterized by XRD, SEM, EDS and PL spectra. According to XRD results the crystallite size of Ag2O·CeO2·ZnO varies in the range of 19-111 nm with an average size of 50 nm, which is in good agreement with SEM results. Elemental analysis was performed by SEM-EDS. Emissions of Ag2O·CeO2·ZnO has been observed in UV (NBE emission), visible and NIR regions at 325 nm excitation by a line of He-Cd laser. Photocatalytic as well as anti-bacterial activities have been studied. The nano composite Ag2O·CeO2·ZnO shows an excellent photocatalytic dye degradation activity.