One-pot synthesis of AgCl@Ag hybrid photocatalyst with high photocatalytic activity and photostability under visible light and sunlight irradiation

Abstract

Abstract In this work, a highly efficient and stable AgCl@Ag hybrid photocatalyst was successfully prepared via a simple one-pot method at low temperature. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) were employed to characterize the as-prepared AgCl@Ag composite. The photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared AgCl@Ag was evaluated by the photodecoloration/photodegradation of some model organic pollutants, methyl orange (MO), methylene blue (MB), rhodamine B (RhB) and 4-nitrophenol. It was found that the as-prepared AgCl@Ag exhibited high photocatalytic activity and excellent photostability not only under visible light, but also sunlight irradiation. Kinetic studies by using active species scavenger technology suggested that hydroxyl radicals ( OH) was not the dominant photooxidant, while holes (h+) and superoxide anion radicals (O2 −) generated in the photocatalytic process played key roles in MO decoloration. A possible mechanism for the charge separation and MO photodecoloration is proposed.