Performance promotion of Ag2O photocatalyst by particle size and crystal surface regulation

The insufficient photocatalytic performance of Ag2O makes it difficult to apply to actual industrial printing and dyeing waste water treatment systems, which contain a variety of organic pollutants. Therefore, it is urgent to improve the photocatalytic performance of Ag2O. In this study, the main factors affecting the properties of Ag2O photocatalysts were screened out by single factor experiments. Then, the optimum conditions for the preparation of Ag2O were simulated by response surface design. The prepared Ag2O showed good photodegradation performance to methyl orange and phenol, but the degradation of rhodamine B was significantly delayed. After that, the pyridine was introduced to adjust the crystal plane structure of Ag2O. The results showed that the photocatalytic oxidation capacity of Ag2O was greatly improved. Ninety percent of rhodamine was removed within 25 minutes. Moreover, the mechanism of controlling the photocatalytic performance has also been studied through fine characterizations.