Facile synthesis of high-performance photocatalysts based on Ag/TiO2 composites

Abstract Herein, the Ag/TiO2 catalysts with different structure (nanoparticles, nanoflakes, and nanorods) are successfully obtained by a simple hydrothermal strategy. The morphologies, microstructure, crystalline structure, specific surface area and optical property of as-synthesized Ag/TiO2 catalysts are investigated by SEM, TEM, XRD, BET, and UV-Vis techniques. The as-synthesized Ag/TiO2 compounds were employed as the catalysts for photodegradation of methyl orange (MO) under visible light irradiation, indicating that such Ag/TiO2 compounds have superior catalytic performance than pure TiO2. Importantly, the 20% Ag/TiO2 photocatalyst exhibits the best photocatalytic activity that is up to 98.9% for MO under visible light irradiation after 120 min, because the suitable amount of Ag could restrain the recombination of the photoproduced charges and extend the range of the light absorption.