Fabrication of Ag/AgCl/ZIF-8/TiO2 decorated cotton fabric as a highly efficient photocatalyst for degradation of organic dyes under visible light

Abstract

In this work, a photocatalyst Ag/AgCl/ZIF-8/TiO2 was facilely assembled on the surface of cotton fabrics via a simple method to fabricate a visible-light photocatalyst composite. The resultant cotton fabric was comprehensively characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and UV–vis diffuse reflection spectroscopy. The results showed that the Ag/AgCl/ZIF-8/TiO2 aggregations have successfully assembled on the surface of cotton fabric. Subsequently, Ag/AgCl/ZIF-8/TiO2 coated cotton fabric was employed as a visible-light photocatalytic material for degradation of organic dyes using methylene blue (MB) as a model. Owing to the synergistic effect of the Ag/AgCl/ZIF-8/TiO2 composite, the functional cotton fabric presented highly efficient photocatalytic degradation performance towards MB, the degradation of MB by Ag/AgCl/ZIF-8/TiO2 coated cotton fabric can reach to 98.5% within 105 min under visible light irradiation. Moreover, the first-order kinetic constant of photocatalytic degradation was 0.0332 min−1. Additionally, Ag/AgCl/ZIF-8/TiO2 coated cotton fabric exhibited acceptable cycle stability. The photocatalytic degradation capacity of MB still can maintain approximately 85% after three cycles. Therefore, Ag/AgCl/ZIF-8/TiO2 coated cotton fabric can be viewed as a good material for dye wastewater treatment due to its good photocatalytic activity and acceptable cycle ability.