Magnetically Separable Ag-AgBr/Fe2O3 Heterostructured Photocatalyst for the Degradation of Dye

Abstract

The plasmonic nanoparticles provide new opportunities for developing visible light active photocatalysts because of enhanced visible light absorption efficiency. In spite of good catalytic activity of the nanocatalyst, separation of catalyst for reuse is difficult in many catalytic applications. So, apart from the catalytic activity good separability of the catalyst is also an important issue for the economy of the process. Considering these problems, we have synthesized Ag-AgBr/Fe2O3 heterostucture by a one-pot facile route. As Fe2O3 shows ferromagnetism along with semiconductor property, synthesized heterostucture is easy to separate by external magnetic field. Initially, CTAB coated Fe2O3 nanoparticles was synthesized in the presence of CTAB by co-precipitation of Fe+3 /Fe+2 (1:2) precursors, then AgBr was formed on the previously formed Fe2O3 nanoparticles after addition of AgNO3. Finally, after exposure to visible light the surface of AgBr converts to Ag0, and resulted to Ag-AgBr/Fe2O3 heterostructure. Synthesized Ag-AgBr/Fe2O3 nanoparticles was also characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, PL-spectroscopy, XRD, and FE-SEM and TEM analysis. We also studied the photocatalytic potential and recyclability of Ag-AgBr/Fe2O3 by degrading Methylene blue as a model organic pollutant. This study indicated that Ag-AgBr/Fe2O3 shows 2 to 3 time higher photocatalytic activity compared that of individual Ag-AgBr and Fe2O3 nanoparticles.