Synthesis of Ag/AgCl/Fe-S plasmonic catalyst for bisphenol A degradation in heterogeneous photo-Fenton system under visible light irradiation

A novel plasmonic photo-Fenton catalyst of Ag/AgCl/Fe-S was synthesized by ion exchange and photoreduction methods. The obtained catalyst was characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope imaging, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller measurements. Moreover, the photocatalytic activity of Ag/AgCl/Fe-S was investigated for its degradation activity towards bisphenol A (BPA) as target pollutant under visible light irradiation. The effects of H2O2 concentration, pH value, illumination intensity, and catalyst dosage on BPA degradation were examined. Our results indicated that the Ag/AgCl material was successfully loaded onto Fe-sepiolite and showed a high photocatalytic activity under illumination by visible light. Furthermore, active species capture experiments were performed to explore the photocatalytic mechanism of the Ag/AgCl/Fe-S in this heterogeneous photo-Fenton process, where the major active species included hydroxyl radicals (center dot OH) and holes (h(+)).