In-situ synthesis and enhanced photocatalytic activity of visible-light-driven plasmonic Ag/AgCl/NaTaO3 nanocubes photocatalysts

Abstract

In this paper, the novel plasmonic Ag/AgCl/NaTaO3 photocatalysts were prepared by a precipitation and photoreduction method then studied the photocatalytic properties. The crystal structure of the photocatalysts was characterized by X-ray diffraction and the morphology and composition were studied by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray. The transmission electron microscopy shows that the Ag ions were finally formed on the surface of AgCl by in situ photoreaction. The photocatalytic examination of the photocatalysts was carried out through the decomposition methylene blue, rhodamine-B and phenol aqueous solution under visible-light irradiation. Compared to the pure NaTaO3 nanocubes and Ag/AgCl nanoparticles, the Ag/AgCl/NaTaO3 photocatalysts show superior photocatalytic activities and still had good photocatalytic activity after five cycles. The UV–vis diffuse reflectance, photoluminescence and photo-electrochemical measurement of the Ag/AgCl/NaTaO3 photocatalysts verified that the enhancing photocatalytic activity was resulted from the ability for absorbing visible-light and the electron-hole pair high separation. Additionally, based on the active species trapping and electron spin resonance experiments, the photocatalytic mechanism was proposed over Ag/AgCl/NaTaO3 photocatalysts for organics degradation.