Facile, rapid, and environmentally benign hybrid Ag-ZnO nanocomposites were synthesized by two steps from green synthesis approach at room temperature. The absence of an impurity peak in X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern confirmed the formation of polycrystalline nanocomposite material. An additional peak (111) of Ag was detected along with ZnO crystalline wurtzite structure. The surface area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern further confirmed the crystallinity of nanocomposites. The compositional analysis of hybrid Ag-ZnO was determined by EDS-mapping and confirmed the presence of Zn, O and Ag in the composite. The room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectra of hybrid Ag-ZnO depict a weak ultraviolet (UV) emission at 385 nm, and the strong visible emission at similar to 600 nm, while increasing the Ag concentration in to ZnO matrix, the UV peak was completely disappeared and major visible peak was moved to similar to 500 nm indicated to the best optimal detection peak for sensors. The fluorescence spectra were measured with respect to Ag concentrations of Ag-ZnO nanocomposite at room temperature to investigate the functionality and the selectivity of nanomaterials. This work opens a notable way to fabricate Ag-ZnO nanohybrids, and makes a significant contribution to the fluorescence based sensor applications. (c) 2018 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.