Enhanced photocatalytic activity of new photocatalyst Ag/AgCl/ZnO

A new composite photocatalyst Ag/AgCl/ZnO was fabricated by a two-step synthesis method under the hydrothermal condition. The sample was characterized by XRD, TG-DSC, SEM, TEM, DRS and XPS. The results showed that the samples were composed of Ag, AgCl and ZnO, and the particle size was in the range of 100 nm-1 mu m. Methyl orange (MO) was used as a representative dye pollutant to evaluate the photocatalytic activity of Ag/AgCl/ZnO. The photocatalytic activity of Ag/AgCl/ZnO catalyst was higher than that of the pure ZnO catalyst. It was found that the Ag/AgCl/ZnO structure changed to Ag/ZnO gradually after several repeated experiments. However, the photocatalytic ability of the sample was not reduced. Finally, a possible photocatalytic mechanism was proposed. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.