Results and discussion Structural and morphological characterization The morphology of the synthesized product was characterized by FESEM which is shown in Figure 2a,b. Low and high magnifications of FESEM images demonstrate that the composite material has rod-shape morphology with average cross section of approximately 300 nm. The nanorods are grown in high density. Figure 2 Typical (a) low-magnification

and (b) high-resolution FESEM images of composite nanorods. The crystallinity of composite nanorods was studied this website by X-ray powder diffraction, and the results are illustrated in Figure 3. XRD spectrum of the nanorods exhibited diffraction peaks associated to Ag (JCPDS # 04–0783), Ag2O3 (JCPDS # 40–909), and ZnO (JCPDS # 36–1451) with wurtzite hexagonal phase. All the attributed peaks are suited with Ag, Ag2O3, and ZnO. There is no additional impurity peak in X-ray diffraction spectrum which indicates that the prepared nanorods are well-crystalline composite

of Ag, Ag2O3, and ZnO. Figure 3 Typical XRD pattern of composite nanorods. The chemical structure of composite nanorods was evaluated by FT-IR spectroscopy, shown in Figure 4a. FT-IR spectrum RG7420 mw of composite nanorods is measured in the range of 400 to 4,000 cm−1 and shown in Figure 4a. FT-IR spectrum showed absorption at 508, 1,626, and 3,442 cm−1. The band centered at 3,442 cm−1 (O-H stretching) and 1,626 cm−1 (O-H bending) is attributed to EVP4593 mouse moister absorbed [1, 7]. The very intense and broad band centered at 508 cm−1 is responsible for M-O (M = Zn and Ag) bonds [9–12]. Figure 4 Typical FT-IR and

UV–vis spectra of composite nanorods. (a) Chemical structure, (b) optical property, and (c) bandgap energy E g of composite nanorods. The optical property of the composite nanorods is important assets which was studied using a UV–vis spectrophotometer and shown in Figure 4b. UV–vis absorption spectrum displayed absorption peak at 375 nm without other impurity peak. The bandgap energy E g of composite nanorods was found to be around 3.30 eV from the tangent drawn at linear plateau of curve (αhν) 2 vs. hν (Figure 4c). Figure 5 shows XPS spectrum of composite nanorods which gives information about the bonding configuration and composition of the synthesized nanorods. XPS spectrum of composite almost nanorods displayed photoelectron peaks for Ag 3d5/2, Ag 3d3/2, O 1 s, Zn 2p3/2, and Zn 2p1/2 at binding energies of 368.0, 374.0, 532.2, 1,023.1, and 1,046.1 eV, respectively, which specifies that composite nanorods contain oxygen, zinc, and silver. These results are similar to the reported values in literature [18, 19]. The XPS data reflect that composite nanorods are made of Ag, Ag2O3, and ZnO. Figure 5 XPS spectrum of composite nanorods. Chemical sensing properties Composite nanorods were employed for finding phenyl hydrazine by measuring the electrical response of phenyl hydrazine using I-V technique [1–3].