Abstract
In this work, a series of carbon nanotubes (CNT)/Ag2S hybrid nanocomposites were successfully prepared by a facile precipitation method. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) observation indicates that Ag2S nanoparticles with an average particle size of ~25 nm are uniformly anchored on the surface of CNT. The photocatalytic activities of the CNT/Ag2S nanocomposites were investigated toward the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under visible and near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation. It is shown that the nanocomposites exhibit obviously enhanced visible and NIR light photocatalytic activities compared with bare Ag2S nanoparticles. Moreover, the recycling photocatalytic experiment demonstrates that the CNT/Ag2S nanocomposites possess excellent photocatalytic stability. The photoelectrochemical and photoluminescence measurements reveal the efficient separation of photogenerated charges in the CNT/Ag2S nanocomposites. This is the dominant reason behind the improvement of the photocatalytic activity. Based on active species trapping experiments, the possible photocatalytic mechanism of CNT/Ag2S nanocomposites for dye degradation under visible and NIR light irradiation was proposed.
Highlights
Photocatalysis has come to be regarded as a promising technology to solve environmental pollution and energy problems [1–3]
As one of the typical photocatalysts, TiO2 can only respond to ultraviolet (UV) light owing to its wide bandgap (~3.2 eV), which seriously limits its application in the photocatalytic field
It is well known that visible light and near-infrared light (NIR) accounts for about 48% and 46% of solar energy, respectively [4]
Summary
Photocatalysis has come to be regarded as a promising technology to solve environmental pollution and energy problems [1–3]. Carbon nanomaterials (e.g., carbon quantum dots (CQDs), carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene) and noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) have a variety of intriguing physicochemical properties and offer a wide scope of technological applications in electronic devices, biomedicine, sensors, and wave absorption [34–41]. Due to their good carrier transport property, interesting photoluminescence (PL) up-conversion effect and localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect [42,43], these nanomaterials can be used as excellent modifiers or co-catalysts to enhance the photocatalytic performances of semiconductor photocatalysts [31–33,44–51]. We propose that this work will offer an efficient modification method for the improvement of visible and NIR light photocatalytic activity of Ag2S nanoparticles
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