Synergetic effect of Ag2O as co-catalyst for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of phenol on N-TiO2

A facile precipitation method was developed to synthesize the Ag2O/N-TiO2 composites. Their morphology, structure and photocatalytic performance in the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and phenol under visible light irradiation were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence spectroscopy and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, respectively. The results show that the Ag2O/N-TiO2 composites exhibit excellent photocatalytic performance. The maximum degradation rates of MB and phenol are about 8.9 and 2.9 times that of pure N-TiO2, respectively. The excellent photocatalytic performance is mainly ascribed to the synergetic effects of Ag2O and N-TiO2 including the increased light absorption and the reduced electron-hole pair recombination in N-TiO2 with the presence of Ag2O. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.