Electrospinning, solvothermal, and self-assembly synthesis of recyclable and renewable AgBr-TiO2/CNFs with excellent visible-light responsive photocatalysis

Novel carbon nanofibers (CNFs) modified by AgBr-TiO2 composite nanoparticles (NPs) would be the most desirable nanostructure materials in preparing visible-driven catalysts because of its efficient charge separation and transport properties as well as superior light harvesting efficiency. In this study, TiO2 nanoparticles grown directly on Ag/CNFs were prepared by a simple solvothermal synthesis. The formation of AgBr, which derived from Ag NPs, was carried out by the gas/solid oxidization reaction. The characterization results indicate that AgBr-sensitized TiO2 NPs were uniformly covered on the surface of CNFs. Under visible light irradiation, the degradation efficiency of MO in the presence of AgBr-TiO2/CNFs was much higher than that of TiO2/CNFs or Ag-TiO2/CNFs, and the as-prepared catalysts showed a universal degradation ability for different organics. Meanwhile, AgBr-TiO2/CNFs had a certain photochemical stability and could be regenerated easily. The as-prepared composites could be easily separated from the solution phase due to the large length-diameter ratio of CNFs, suggesting that the AgBr-sensitized TiO2 nanoparticles loading on carbon nanofibers had a potential application in the field of dye degradation. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.