Morphology-Controlled Synthesis and Applications of Silver Halide Photocatalytic Materials

Semiconductor photocatalysis is considered to be one of the most promising technologies to solve the worldwide environmental and energy issues. In recent years, silver halide (AgX)-based photocatalytic materials have received increasing research attention owing to its excellent visible light-driven photocatalytic performances in the applications of organic pollutant degradation, H2/O2 generation, and disinfection. AgX-based materials used in photocatalytic fields can be classified into three categories: AgX (Ag/AgX), AgX composites, and supported AgX materials. For the AgX (Ag/AgX) photocatalysts, it has been widely accepted that the final photocatalytic performances of photocatalysts are severely dependent on their morphological structures as well as exposed crystal facets. As a result, considerable efforts have been devoted to fabricating different morphological AgX photocatalysts as well as exploring the relationship between the morphological structures and photocatalytic performances. In this review, we mainly introduce the recent developments made in fabricating morphology and facet-controllable AgX (Ag/AgX) photocatalytic materials. Moreover, this review also deals with the photocatalytic mechanism and applications of AgX (Ag/AgX) and supported AgX materials.