Preparation and characterization of Ag/ZnO composites via a simple hydrothermal route

Silver/zinc oxide (Ag/ZnO) composites were fabricated by a facile one-pot synthesis method under hydrothermal conditions. By choosing glucose as the reductant, metal Ag was fabricated from Ag₂O with the growth of the crystalline ZnO. Structure measurements revealed that obtained Ag/ZnO composites comprised wurtzite ZnO and face-centered cubic structure of nanosized Ag, which uniformly distributed in the composites. Moreover, the morphology of the ZnO was varied regularly with the formation of Ag nanoparticles from flower-like to rod-like and finally returned to flower-like. The optical properties of UV–Vis and surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectra of the composites as well as effects of the dimension of metal Ag fabricated during the prior period of reaction on the morphology of ZnO were discussed.