The effective photocatalysis and antibacterial properties of AgBr/Ag2MoO4@ZnO composites under visible light irradiation

A novel Z-scheme AgBr/Ag2MoO4@ZnO photocatalyst was fabricated via a hydrothermal process and in situ growth method. X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy were used to determine the structure of the photocatalyst. The results showed that the composites were tightly connected by the (101) lattice plane of ZnO, the (222) plane of Ag2MoO4 and the (200) lattice plane of AgBr. Because of the strong redox activity and good separability of photoelectrons and holes induced by the Z-scheme structure, the photodegradation rate for ciprofloxacin (CIP) solution was 80.5% by the photocatalysis of 0.5 AgBr/Ag2MoO4@ZnO. In addition, more than 99.999% of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells were killed within 60 min. These results demonstrate that AgBr/Ag2MoO4@ZnO is a promising photocatalyst, which can be used in organic pollutant degradation and the photocatalytic antibacterial area.