Fabrication and adsorption/photocatalytic degradation activities of (ZIF-8/Ag-AgVO3) composites

The utilization of porous materials such as metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) presents novel prospects for advancing photocatalyst research. One particularly promising avenue involves combining Zn-zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) with Ag-based semiconductors as photocatalyst heterostructures. Herein, a visible-light-sensitive heterojunction of Ag-AgVO3 nanorods with ZIF-8 have been assembled via simple hydrothermal method. Different characterization methods like XRD, FESEM, EDX, TEM, UV–visible DRS, PL, and BET-surface area were utilized to describe the phase purity, composition, morphology, elemental analysis, optical, and surface features of the assembled ZIF-8/Ag-AgVO3 hybrids. Due to unique nanoconstruction, the ZIF-8/Ag-AgVO3 presented improved photodegradation (98.2%) toward Congo red dye (CR) under visible light, which was 1.3, 3, and 9 times higher than ZIF-8/AgVO3, Ag-AgVO3 and ZIF-8, respectively. The boosted photocatalytic efficiency and stability of ZIF-8/Ag-AgVO3 is credited to its efficient carrier transfer and separation through the Z-type heterojunction and surface plasmonic resonance (SPR) action. The potential mechanism was confirmed by the reactive oxygen species (ROS) quenching experiments, demonstrating that the ·O2– and ·OH were the main active ROS. In the cyclic photodegradation tests, the ZIF-8/Ag-AgVO3 presented great stability, in which maintained 96.9 % photodegradation efficiency after 5 runs. When compared with the first photodegradation run, the degradation efficiency of ZIF-8/Ag-AgVO3 was merely decreased by 1.32%. Therefore, this study offers new perspectives on designing and constructing MOFs as efficient photocatalysts that can harness visible light to degrade organic pollutants.