A review of recent progress in silver silicate-based photocatalysts for organic pollutant degradation

Abstract

Photocatalytic degradation has emerged as a popular solution to the problem of water pollution because of its availability and versatility. Silver silicate and silver silicate-based heterostructure nanocomposites have shown excellent photocatalysis performance in the field of environmental protection. The primary objective of this review is to summarize the recent progress of monomeric silver silicate, silver silicate-based binary and ternary heterostructures as photocatalytic materials in the removal of organic pollutants as reported in literatures: (I) the photocatalytic degradation activity of monomeric silver silicate, silver silicate-based p-n heterojunction, silver silicate-based Z-scheme heterostructure nanocomposites, and controlling the photocatalytic activity of silver silicate-based heterostructures through surface plasmon resonance along with crystal plane have been reviewed. (II) the enhancement mechanisms involved in the removal of organic pollutants through photocatalysis performed by monomeric silver silicate and silver silicate-based heterostructure nanocomposites have been highlighted. (III) the outlooks on photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants by silver silicates-based photocatalysts are given. This review may provide some guidance for improving the performance of silver silicate-based photocatalysts. And it will benefit the researchers in the area of material designing of silver silicate-based photocatalysts.