Hydrothermal Synthesis And Photocatalytic Properties Of Composites Of Ag@AgCl And Reduced Graphene Oxide

Study on the new high-performance visible catalyst is significant for the sufferings of theenergy and environment issues in the transformation process of economic development,especially the techniques to solve resource deterioration of water environment. Graphene havespecial electronic state structure and electrical conductivity, and Ag@AgCl have excellentvisible light photocatalytic properties. Ag@AgCl-RGO composite catalyst is expected tobecome the ideal high-performance visible catalyst through integrating both excellentperformance.In this paper, Ag@AgCl-RGO was fabricated by hydrothermal method. The phasecomposition, surface morphology and spectroscopic properties of the composite photocatalystswere characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and an ultraviolet visiblespectrometer, respectively. The catalytic performance of different photocatalysts wasinvestigated using UV-Vis absorption spectra by measuring the change of the concentration ofrhodamine B dye (RhB) solution with the irradiation time under the visible light in the presentof the composite photo-catalyst. According to researching how the GO added amount,hydrothermal temperature, hydrothermal time, hydrothermal pH value and photoreduction timeaffect the structure and optical properties of Ag@AgCl-RGO composites, the main conclusionsare as follows:(1) The Ag@AgCl-RGO composite nanoparticles synthesised by hydrothermal methodhave special surface mosaic structure and a better light absorption performance and catalyticperformance than that of pure Ag@AgCl nanoparticles.(2) With the RGO precursor GO added amount increasing, mosaic structure of the samplesurface becomes more obvious, and the branched structure of the surface is more dense, andthe visible light absorption properties and catalytic performance increased gradually, but bothof the visible light absorption properties and catalytic performance are degradated when the GOis added to a certain extent.(3) With hydrothermal temperature and hydrothermal time increasing, the size ofAg@AgCl particles increase, which has little effect on the light absorption performance andcatalytic performance of Ag@AgCl-RGO composite.(4) With the hydrothermal pH value increasing, the sample particles tend to uniform andrefine, and the photocatalytic properties of Ag@AgCl-RGO composites increase gradually.(5) Photoreduction time has no significant effect on the sample particle size, but too shortor too long exposure time reduce its photocatalytic properties. Photoreduction time as long as20min, Ag@AgCl-RGO samples visible light photocatalytic performance is best.(6) The hydrothermal reaction process parameters have no significant effect on the crystalstructure of the final Ag@AgCl-RGO samples.