Visible light photocatalytic activities of plasmonic Ag/AgBr particles synthesized by a double jet method

Ag/AgBr catalyst, synthesized by the simple double jet method, was found to be a novel visible light driven photocatalyst for the degradation of methyl orange. The photocatalytic reaction follows first-order kinetics and the rate constant (k) for the degradation of methyl orange photocatalyzed by Ag/AgBr is 102 and 16 times of that by commercial TiO2 (Degussa P-25) and mesoporous N-doping TiO2, respectively. The recycling runs experiment shows that the photocatalytic stability of Ag/AgBr photocatalyst is excellent. Total organic carbon experiment indicates that Ag/AgBr photocatalyst can easily mineralize methyl orange. The effects of initial concentration of methyl orange, catalyst dosage, pH of methyl orange solution and scavenger of electrons or holes on methyl orange photodegradation were investigated. The formation of H2O2 was observed in the aqueous Ag/AgBr suspension under visible light irradiation. The photocatalytic mechanism of Ag/AgBr was also discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.