In situ controllable synthesis of novel surface plasmon resonance-enhanced Ag 2 WO 4 /Ag/Bi 2 MoO 6 composite for enhanced and stable visible light photocatalyst

Abstract A novel hierarchical Ag2WO4/Ag/Bi2MoO6 ternary visible-light-driven photocatalyst was successfully synthesized by in situ doping Ag2WO4 with Bi2MoO6 nanosheets through a facile hydrothermal and photochemical process. The morphology, structure, optical performance and crystallinity of the products were measured by field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results showed that Ag2WO4/Ag was uniformly dispersed on the surface of Bi2MoO6 nanosheets. The photocatalytic performance of Ag2WO4/Ag/Bi2MoO6 heterostructures was evaluated by the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under 410 nm LED arrays. The ternary Ag2WO4/Ag/Bi2MoO6 nanocomposite exhibits higher photocatalytic activity than Bi2MoO6 and Ag2WO4. The synergistic effect of Ag2WO4 and Bi2MoO6 could generated more heterojunctions which promoted photoelectrons transfer from Ag2WO4 to Bi2MoO6, leading to the improvement of photocatalytic performance by photoelectrons-holes recombination suppression. At the same time, the surface plasmon resonance of Ag2WO4/Ag/Bi2MoO6 is another crucial reason for the high photocatalytic performance of organic pollutants degradation. And the 20 wt% Ag2WO4-loaded Bi2MoO6 shows the optimal photocatalytic performance in the degradation of MB. In addition, the ternary composites can be easily reclaimed by precipitation and exhibits high stability of photocatalytic degradation after five recycles.