Ultrasonic-assisted synthesis of plasmonic Z-scheme Ag/AgCl/WO3-nanoflakes photocatalyst in geothermal water with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic performance

In this study, the Ag/AgCl/WO3 plasmonic Z-scheme photocatalysts with different contents of Ag/AgCl nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared through a facile ultrasonic precipitation method in geothermal water, wherein the geothermal water served as the chlorine source. Then the photocatalytic activity was investigated by degradation of 4-Aminobenzoic acid (4-ABA) under visible-light irradiation. It was found that the as-prepared 50 wt% Ag/AgCl/WO3 photocatalyst showed the highest photocatalytic efficiency with 25.12 and 3.53 times higher than those of pure WO3 and Ag/AgCl, respectively. The active species trapping experiments indicated that h(+) and center dot O(2)(-)were key factors in 4-ABA photodegradation process. The possible plasmonic Z-scheme photocatalytic mechanism of photocatalytic reaction for 4-ABA degradation was proposed based on systematical characterizations. We hope this paper could give new ideas for further exploiting geothermal energy to design and fabricate highly efficient visible-light-driven photocatalysts for environmental remediation. (C) 2017 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved.