Effect of different reductants on the composition and photocatalytic performances of Ag/AgIO3 hybrids prepared by in-situ reduction method

The delicate design of metal/semiconductor hybrid photocatalysts by coupling the semiconductors with metal nanoparticles is an effective strategy to ameliorate the charge-carrier separation and expand the light absorption range. Here a facile and environment-benign precipitation-reduction reaction at room temperature is demonstrated for in-situ forming Ag/AgIO3 hybrids with intimate contact, which are verified by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The results indicated that the type of reductants has an important effect on the content of Ag in the Ag/AgIO3 hybrids, thus affecting the photocatalytic performance. The samples obtained by using KBH4 as the reductant demonstrates the best visible light photocatalytic performance for Rhodamine B degradation and remains well photocatalytic activity after six cycling runs. This work provides an efficient and eco-friendly strategy for the synthesis of metal/semiconductors hybrids with plasma effect for photocatalytic application.