Characterization of AgBr/Ag3BiO3 nanocomposite with enhanced photocatalytic under visible light

The discharge of large amount of organic pollutants and antibiotics has seriously contaminated the water environment, which poses a serious threat to human health. In recent years, photocatalytic nanomaterials have become a research hotspot in the environmental remediation [1-3]. In this paper, we report on the photocatalytic properties of AgBr/Ag3BiO3 composite, prepared using an ionic exchange method. The structure of the synthesized composite was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis) was used to examine the optical behavior. The photocatalytic activity was tested by degrading of Rhodamine B (RhB) cationic dye and methyl blue (MB) anionic dye using visible-light (VL), and the result indicated that the photodegradation rate for both dyes was improved compared to pure Ag3BiO3 and AgBr (86% and 90 % for RhB and MB, respectively, at 60 min of degradation). A comparative study with different kinetic models has been carried out for studying the photocatalytic degradation kinetics of both dyes. The enhanced photocatalytic performance could be attributed to the the effective formation of heterojunction between Ag3BiO3 and AgBr which significantly inhibited the recombination of light-induced electron-hole pairs in the semiconductor composite. Also, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect, due to the introduction of Ag nanoparticles on the surface of the catalyst, could be considered [2,4]. These results demonstrated that the AgBr/Ag3BiO3 composite photocatalyst could be widely used in the treatment of environmental pollution and in the antibacterial field.
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