Ultrasonic-assisted preparation of novel ternary ZnO/Ag3VO4/Ag2CrO4 nanocomposites and their enhanced visible-light activities in degradation of different pollutants

Novel ternary ZnO/Ag3VO4/Ag2CrO4 nanocomposites were successfully fabricated via preparation of ZnO/Ag3VO4 followed by coupling of it with Ag2CrO4 through facile ultrasonic-assisted method. The resultant samples were carefully characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive analysis of X-rays, UV-evis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy, and photoluminescence techniques. Photocatalytic activity for degradation of organic dyes, including rhodamine B, methylene blue, and methyl orange was examined under visible-light irradiation. Among the prepared samples, the ternary nanocomposite with 20% of Ag2CrO4 demonstrated the superior activity. This nanocomposite showed 10.6, 2.9, and 3.0-folds greater activity compared to ZnO, ZnO/Ag2CrO4, and ZnO/Ag3VO4, respectively. The enhanced activity was attributed to more harvesting of the visible-light irradiation and efficiently separation of the photogenerated charge carriers in the ternary nanocomposites. To understand efficiently separation of the charge carriers, a plausible diagram was proposed based on formation of tandem n-n heterojunctions. (C) 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.