A new energetic material system composed of Ag-Zn(NO3)(2)(N2H4)(3) composite buried in zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) particles was developed to prepare Ag-ZnO photocatalyst via "detonation deposition" method. The Ag-Zn(NO3)(2)(N2H4)(3) composite was derived from ZIF-8 and AgNO3 with the complexation and reducing reaction with N2H4 center dot H2O, and it served as explosive source and zinc source in the detonation process. Ag nanoparticles embedded in Zn(NO3)(2)(N2H4)(3) would increase the homogeneity of the whole detonation system. Meanwhile, the ZIF-8 particles around were another zinc source, ensuring the safety and controllability of the whole detonation process. After thermal treatment, the size of Ag-ZnO composites was in the range of 30-100 nm with no similar structure to Ag-Zn(NO3)(2)(N2H4)(3) or ZIF-8. The absorption band of the Ag-x-ZnO series samples in visible region was assigned to surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect of Ag nanoparticles. The detonation process introduced a lot of defects in ZnO, which were confirmed by photoluminescence spectrophotometer (PL) spectra. These defects would form multiple defect-related levels in the band gap, which contributed to the excellent photocatalytic performance on methylene blue (MB) and phenol degradation with the concerted effects from Ag nanoparticles. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.