Ag/AgBr/Graphene Oxide Nanocomposite Synthesized via Oil/Water and Water/Oil Microemulsions: A Comparison of Sunlight Energized Plasmonic Photocatalytic Activity

Abstract

In this article, we report that Ag/AgBr nanostructures and the corresponding graphene oxide (GO) hybridized nanocomposite, Ag/AgBr/GO, could be facilely synthesized by means of a surfactant-assisted assembly protocol, where an oil/water microemulsion is used as the synthesis medium. We show that thus-produced nanomaterials could be used as highly efficient and stable plasmonic photocatalysts for the photodegradation of methyl orange (MO) pollutant under sunlight irradiation. Compared with the bare Ag/AgBr nanospecies, Ag/AgBr/GO displays distinctly enhanced photocatalytic activity. More importantly, the as-prepared nanostructures exhibit higher photocatalytic activity than that of the corresponding Ag/AgBr-based nanomaterials synthesized viaa water/oil microemulsion and than that of the corresponding Ag/AgCl-based nanospecies synthesized by an oil/water microemulsion. An explanation has been proposed for these interesting findings. Our results suggest that thus-manufactured Ag/AgBr/GO plasmonic photocatalysts are promising alternatives to the traditional UV light or visible-light driven photocatalysts.

Visible-light-driven Ag/Ag3PO4-based plasmonic photocatalysts: Enhanced photocatalytic performance by hybridization with graphene oxide

“…This could be attributed to the existence of GO nanosheets in the synthesis system [28][29][30]. Structurally, GO nanospecies are atomic thick nanosheets of covalently organized lattice of carbon atoms, whose basal planes and edges are decorated with various oxygen-containing groups, such as hydroxyl, epoxide, carboxyl groups, etc [32,33].…”

“…In the case of GO nanosheets, the introduction of the covalently attached hydrophilic oxygen groups on their basal plane endows them with amphiphilic properties to some extent. Accordingly, this makes it possible that GO nanospecies could play a role as an unconventional polymeric surfactant in a colloid system [30,32,33]. On the other hand, from the viewpoint of nanofabrication, it has been demonstrated that the size of the produced nanostructures in a colloid system could be decreased by introducing polymeric surfactant molecules to the synthesis system [30,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40].…”

“…On the other hand, from the viewpoint of nanofabrication, it has been demonstrated that the size of the produced nanostructures in a colloid system could be decreased by introducing polymeric surfactant molecules to the synthesis system [30,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. These polymeric surfactant molecules are suggested to work as stabilizer or capping agents to hamper the further growth of the formed nanospecies, resulting in smaller nanostructures [30,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. For example, it has recently been reported that the size of the Ag/AgCl nanoparticles could be decreased with the assistance of polymeric surfactant molecules, poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) [40].…”

“…For example, it has recently been reported that the size of the Ag/AgCl nanoparticles could be decreased with the assistance of polymeric surfactant molecules, poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) [40]. On the basis of these well-documented understandings [30,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] and accompanied by our experimental facts, we suggest that in our system the GO nanosheet, an unconventional amphiphilic polymer, might work as capping agent or stabilizer to hamper the further growth of the Ag/Ag 3 PO 4 nanoparticles, resulting in smaller size of the formed nanostructures. Similar results have been reported in other systems [28][29][30].…”

“…Thus far, a paramount of GO involved nanohybrids have been developed aiming at manufacturing high-efficiency catalyst, especially those for the photodegradation of pollutants [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. On the basis of these backgrounds, it is strongly expected that enhanced photocatalytic performance of Ag 3 PO 4 nanospecies might be realized by hybridization with GO nanosheet, which is a nanomaterial of general and broad interest [20][21][22].…”