FABRICATION OF SILVER-BASED VISIBLE-LIGHT-DRIVEN PHOTOCATALYST AND DEGRADATION OF ORGANIC POLLUTANTS IN WASTEWATER

In recent years, photocatalysts focuses on narrow band gap semiconductors has attracted much attention in pollutants degradation due to its efficient degradation rate. Among the reported photocatalytic materials, Ag-based semiconductors as promising visible light-driven photocatalysts have aroused much interesting due to their strong visible light responsibility. In current work, a ternary plasmonic visible-light-driven photocatalyst Ag/Ag2WO4/RGO (AAR) was successfully synthesized through a facile and effective hydrothermal method. The prepared AAR photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electronmicroscopy (SEM) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). It was found that the AAR exhibited superior photocatalytic activity to bare Ag2WO4 under visible light irradiation. The photocatalytic degradations of methylene blue (MB) dye pollutant over AAR photocatalyst were investigated. The significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity and stability of AAR photocatalyst could be attributed to the excellent electron-accepting and transporting properties of reduced graphene oxide (RGO). The possible mechanism of photocatalytic activity enhancement was proposed.