Assembling Ag/UiO-66-NH2 Composites for Photocatalytic Dye Degradation

The water pollution currently constitutes a severe threat to our living life, and MOF (metal-organic framework)-based photocatalysts offer an efficient route to clean various water pollutants in an eco-friendly manner. Integration of metal nanoparticles (MNPs) with photoactive MOFs has proven an effective way to further boost the photocatalytic performance. In this work, Ag/UiO-66-NH2 composites (UiO = University of Oslo) have been facilely assembled in two steps involving first wet impregnation of AgNO3 into UiO-66-NH2 followed by chemical reduction with NaBH4. Benefited from the built-in heterostructure that can promote both the electron-hole separation, and the absorption of the visible-light, Ag/UiO-66-NH2 composites exhibited an enhanced photocatalytic performance than the pristine UiO-66-NH2 towards photodegradation of RhB (Rhodamine B) dye under the irradiation of UV-Visible light. About 96% of RhB can be degraded by Ag/UiO-66-NH2 in a period of 40 min. Besides, Ag/UiO-66-NH2 demonstrated a good recycling stability which showed an only slight drop in the dye photodegradation efficiency after three consecutive runs. The current work suggests that Ag/UiO-66-NH2 composites have a great potential in practical application toward water remediation.