A Facile Synthesis of Visible-Light Driven Rod-on-Rod like α-FeOOH/α-AgVO3 Nanocomposite as Greatly Enhanced Photocatalyst for Degradation of Rhodamine B

Abstract

In this work, we have synthesized the rod-on-rod–like α-FeOOH/α-AgVO3 nanocomposite photocatalysts with the different amounts of solvothermally synthesized α-FeOOH nanorods via a simple co-precipitation method. The as-synthesized photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, UV−Visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), element mapping, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The observed SEM images show that both α-AgVO3 and α-FeOOH exhibits the rod-shaped morphology with nano size. Furthermore, the photocatalytic activities of the obtained photocatalysts were evaluated towards the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible-light irradiation. It is demonstrated that the 3 mg α-FeOOH added to the α-FeOOH/α-AgVO3 nanocomposite exhibited an enhanced photocatalytic performance as compared with the pure α-AgVO3 and α-FeOOH. This significant improvement can be attributed to the increased photo-excited electron-hole pair separation efficiency, large portion of visible-light absorption ability and the reduced recombination of the electron-hole pair. The recycling test revealed that the optimized nanocomposite exhibited good photostability and reusability properties. In addition, the believable photodegradation mechanism of RhB using α-FeOOH/α-AgVO3 nanocomposite is proposed. Hence, the developed α-FeOOH/α-AgVO3 nanocomposite is a promising material for the degradation of organic pollutants in an aqueous environment.

In-Situ Fabrication of g-C3N4/ZnO Nanocomposites for Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue: Synthesis Procedure Does Matter

“…Solar energy is believed to be the most abundant source of sustainable and clean energy [ 1 ]. Photocatalysis is a developing green technology that can utilize solar energy for a wide range of applications, such as the decomposition of various organic compounds in water purification processes [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ], hydrogen production and CO 2 photoreduction in energy conversion [ 6 , 7 , 8 ], and bacterial inactivation in medicine [ 9 ]. Among well-known semiconductor photocatalysts, ZnO is promising because of its remarkable properties, such as physicochemical/thermal stability, low-cost, high redox potential, and electron mobility [ 10 , 11 , 12 ].…”

Fabrication of a Novel AgBr/Ag2MoO4@InVO4 Composite with Excellent Visible Light Photocatalytic Property for Antibacterial Use

“…To further prove the influence of free radical active substance on the photocatalytic reaction, we conducted a free radical capturing experiment. Isopropyl alcohol (IPA), p-benzoquinone (BQ) and sodium oxalate (MSDS) served as the •OH capture agent, •O 2 − capture agent and h + capture agent, respectively [16,37]. As shown in Figure 6, 94.9% of ciprofloxacin (CIP) was degraded without the capture agent after 120 min illumination.…”

“…However, the competence of the InVO 4 photocatalyst is largely affected by its size and micro-morphology, resulting in low efficiency of photogenerated carriers [ 15 ]. Use of a supporting cocatalyst on the surface of the photocatalyst is considered as one of the most effective methods to drive the separation of photogenerated electrons and holes and enhance photocatalytic activity [ 15 , 16 ]. Ag 2 MoO 4 has many advantages such as excellent antibacterial activity, high conductivity, good electrochemical energy storage, suitable valence band position, generation of a large number of hydroxyl radicals, controllable morphology, photoluminescence, etc.…”

The improvement of photocatalysis O2 production over BiVO4 with amorphous FeOOH shell modification

“…Hence, considering the wide light responded property and cost, Fe based semiconductors enter into our view. Among Fe based semiconductors, FeOOH exhibits extensive visible light response capacity, which caused FeOOH coupled with other photocatalysts to modify the visible-light-irradiation photocatalytic property, some FeOOH with certain crystalline phase was used to modify photocatalyst materials, such as β-FeOOH/TiO 2 38 , β-FeOOH/g-C 3 N 4 39 , α-FeOOH/AgVO 3 40 , etc. Actually, FeOOH contained various crystalline phases, including α-phase, β-phase, δ-phase, γ-phase, and amorphous phase.…”