Enhanced photocatalytic performance of sphere-like AgCl/ rGO catalysts under simulated and natural sunlight irradiation

Abstract

Here we prepared sphere-like AgCl by stirring in the presence of sodium oleate, and loaded it on the surface of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) to form sphere-like AgCl/ rGO composite. Sphere-like AgCl exhibited enhanced degradation efficiency after the inserting of rGO with degrading 80.6% of tetracycline (TC) within 90 min, which was about 15.4% higher than pristine spherical AgCl (65.2%) under simulated sunlight irradiation. Moreover, five times cycling test of the obtained samples had revealed the improved stability of AgCl/ rGO. The remarkable photocatalytic activity was mainly due to the better interaction between AgCl and rGO, where charge separation and transfer as well as the utilization of sunlight were boosted. Improved photocatalytic stability was majorly ascribed to the fast electrons transfer from AgCl to rGO before the reduction of Ag+ to Ag. Besides, a possible photocatalytic reaction mechanism under simulated sunlight was proposed. Meanwhile, AgCl/ rGO also exhibited better photocatalytic efficiency for the degradation of TC under natural sunlight irradiation (73.2%), which is hopeful for practical application of photocatalysts.