Preparation of a recyclable and high-performance photocatalyst AgInS2/CN/PAN for RhB and phenol degradation

Photocatalysis technology is considered as an important strategy to solve the environmental and energy crisis, but the powdered photocatalyst is difficult to recover from water environment and may lead secondary pollution, restricts its practical applications. In this work, a novel AgInS2/CN/PAN photocatalytic film with recyclable and high-performance was successfully prepared for RhB and phenol degradation. The microstructure of this photocatalytic film was evaluated by XRD, FTIR, XPS, SEM, TEM, UV–vis, Photoluminescence spectra, Transient photocurrent, etc. The as-prepared AgInS2/CN/PAN photocatalytic film exhibited the excellent photocatalytic activity, about 94.48% of RhB and about 77.71% of phenol can be degraded after 60 min visible light irradiation, respectively. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of the photocatalytic film was believed to be related to the improved light-harvest ability and the facilitated carrier transport ability between AgInS2 and CN. The AgInS2/CN/PAN photocatalytic film could be easily separate from water after photocatalytic process only through a sample filtering method, which can be reused via a simple washing and drying process. Meanwhile, biology and environment toxicities of the as-prepared samples towards Mung bean seeds were performed. This study may develop a novel strategy to rationally design the novel recyclable and high-performance photocatalysts for water pollution remediation.