Abstract
Novel and stable carbon based embedded silver nano composite materials (Ag/CSs) were successfully prepared by a facile one-pot hydrothermal method with trioctylamine (TOA) as soft template and stabilizer. These as-prepared Ag/CSs exhibit well-defined shape and relatively uniform size with an average diameter of 1.5 μm and uniformly embedded Ag nanoparticles about 5 nm. The proper proportion of glucose, AgNO3 and TOA is the key to the common growth of hydrothermal carbon materials and silver nanoparticles in an embedded way. Besides, the thickness of carbon sphere matrix and the size of Ag particles can be tailored precisely by adjusting the experimental parameters. In order to facilitate comparative analysis, carbon spheres (CSs) without Ag particles embedded were also prepared with glucose under the same hydrothermal reaction conditions. The composition, structure and morphology of the as-prepared Ag/CSs and CSs were confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), FT-IR spectroscopy, Raman spectrum, Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, the possible formation mechanism of the Ag/CSs has been proposed based on experimental evidences. Finally, the as-prepared Ag/CSs and CSs were used as catalysts in the experiments of photocatalytic degradation of methylene MB in water under visible light irradiation and the high efficiency of photocatalytic performance of Ag/CSs has been verified.
Highlights
Silver nanoparticles have received considerable attention for many years because of its fascinating catalytic performance and other widespread use in applications related to photonics, information storage, chemical/biological sensing and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) [1]
From the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) picture (Fig. 1a) we can see that the surface of carbon spheres is very smooth if AgNO3 absented from the reaction
The average size of carbon spheres is too thick too penetrate for electrons, it’s hard to see the internal structure of the carbon spheres (Fig. 1b)
Summary
Silver nanoparticles have received considerable attention for many years because of its fascinating catalytic performance and other widespread use in applications related to photonics, information storage, chemical/biological sensing and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) [1]. 18 Study of Preparation, Growth Mechanism and Catalytic Performance of Carbon Based Embedded Silver the hydrothermal reduction method has mild reaction conditions, low energy consumption and simple operation, which can achieve the morphology control of the composite materials. The aggregates of silver group overall encapsulated in carbon based, which limited its specific surface area If these core-shell materials used as catalyst, its catalytic activity must be weakened for the thick carbonaceous shell. The structure of the composites is "embedded" mode, which is completely different from the "load" and the "encapsulated" composite way This "embedded" mode can prevent the oxidation of silver nanoparticles to a certain extent, greatly increase the specific surface area and improve the catalytic activity. The as-prepared Ag/CSs with high degradation efficiency and photocatalytic activities were validated in the experiment of decomposing the methylene blue (MB) in water and irradiated by visible light
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