A novel strategy to fabricate plasmonic Ag/AgBr nano-particle and its enhanced visible photocatalytic performance and mechanism for degradation of acetaminophen

Abstract In the present work, plasmonic Ag/AgBr nano-particle was fabricated by solution reduction strategy. Meanwhile, physicochemical properties of the resulting samples were investigated by series of techniques. Results showed that Ag/AgBr nano-particle exhibited intense light absorbance in the whole visible region, high photoinduced charge separation efficiency and visible light driven PC performance. Furthermore, the enhanced visible light PC mechanism was proposed and confirmed. Besides, the PC degradation pathways of acetaminophen were elucidated based on the UPLC-MS/MS measurement. Results indicated that five degradation intermediates were detected, consequently two tentative pathways for PC degradation of acetaminophen were proposed, for example hydroxylation addition to parent compound and C N cleavage of side chain from the acetaminophen attacked by photoinduced holes. This study provides a facile and feasible strategy to fabricate high-efficient visible light response of nano-materials which can be applied in the fields of waste water treatment.