Abstract
The development of an efficient photocatalyst with superior activity under visible light has been regarded as a significant strategy for pollutant degradation and environmental remediation. Herein, a series of WO3/Ag2CO3 mixed photocatalysts with different proportions were prepared by a simple mixing method and characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, and DRS techniques. The photocatalytic performance of the WO3/Ag2CO3 mixed photocatalyst was investigated by the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation (λ > 400 nm). The photocatalytic efficiency of the mixed WO3/Ag2CO3 photocatalyst was rapidly increased with the proportion of Ag2CO3 up to 5%. The degradation percentage of RhB by WO3/Ag2CO3–5% reached 99.7% within 8 min. The pseudo-first-order reaction rate constant of WO3/Ag2CO3–5% (0.9591 min–1) was 118- and 14-fold higher than those of WO3 (0.0081 min–1) and Ag2CO3 (0.0663 min–1). The catalytic activities of the mixed photocatalysts are not only higher than those of the WO3 and Ag2CO3 but also higher than that of the WO3/Ag2CO3 composite prepared by the precipitation method. The activity enhancement may be because of the easier separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs. The photocatalytic mechanism was investigated by free radical capture performance and fluorescence measurement. It was found that light-induced holes (h+) was the major active species and superoxide radicals (·O2–) also played a certain role in photocatalytic degradation of RhB.
Highlights
With rapid industrialization and urban growth, human beings are in an era of wealth and prosperity
The results demonstrated that the photocatalytic efficiency of the mixed WO3/Ag2CO3 photocatalyst was higher than those of both WO3 and Ag2CO3
The electrons in the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of rhodamine B (RhB) are injected to the conduction band (CB) radicals o·Of A2−g.825COIn34adodritciaopnt,utrheed by O2, generating superoxide photoexcited electrons in the CB of WO3 may partially move to the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of RhB so that stabilize the photogenerated holes in the valence band (VB) of WO3.85
Summary
With rapid industrialization and urban growth, human beings are in an era of wealth and prosperity. The consequent energy shortage and environment pollution have been becoming worldwide problems.[1−3] Lots of organic dyes in the industrial wastewater discharged by enterprises can lead to a series of problems such as eutrophication and carcinogenesis of water bodies.[4−7] Degradation of toxic and harmful organic pollutants with a semiconductor-mediated photocatalyst is of great significance for solving environmental pollution.[8−11] the wide band gap and low quantum efficiency are still the ′′bottlenecks′′ for semiconductor photocatalysts to meet the practical application requirements.[12] it is an urgent need to develop renewable, efficient, and wide light-responsive photocatalysts for pollutant degradation and environmental remediation.[1,13,14] Metal oxide semiconductors such as ZnO,[15] TiO2,16 Cu2O,17 SnO2,18 and Fe2O319 have been receiving much attention for the photocatalytic degradation of various kinds of pollutants.
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