Enhanced photocatalytic performance of Ag/TiO2 nanohybrid sensitized by black phosphorus nanosheets in visible and near-infrared light

Xin Wang; Yuren Xiang; Benqing Zhou; Youming Zhang; Jiatao Wu; Rui Hu; Liwei Liu; Jun Song; Junle Qu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2018.09.013

Enhanced photocatalytic performance of Ag/TiO₂ nanohybrid sensitized by black phosphorus nanosheets in visible and near-infrared light

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2019 Jan 15:534:1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.09.013. Epub 2018 Sep 5.

Authors

Xin Wang¹, Yuren Xiang¹, Benqing Zhou², Youming Zhang³, Jiatao Wu³, Rui Hu¹, Liwei Liu¹, Jun Song⁴, Junle Qu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
² Biophotonics Research Laboratory, Center of Interdisciplinary Biomedical Education and Research, College of Mathematics and Science, University of Central Oklahoma, OK 73034, USA.
³ Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong 999077, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China. Electronic address: songjun@szu.edu.cn.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China. Electronic address: jlqu@szu.edu.cn.

PMID: 30196196
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.09.013

Abstract

The efficient utilization of solar energy for environmental cleaning has attracted great attention, where the key is to efficiently harvest the visible and near-infrared (NIR) light which occupies approximately 95% of the solar light energy. Recently, black phosphorus (BP), as a new staring 2D material, has been extensively studied as photocatalytic materials due to its broad light absorption and tunable bandgap. Herein, we report a novel ternary nanocomposite, BP-Ag/TiO₂, prepared through controlled deposition of Ag clusters on the surface of TiO₂ nanocrystals and then incorporated to BP nanosheets. The BP-Ag/TiO₂ nanocomposite has shown excellent photocatalytic activity towards the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under visible and NIR light irradiation. About 100% and even 25% of MB was degraded in 85 min under >420 nm and >780 nm irradiation, respectively. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of BP-Ag/TiO₂ nanocomposite was mainly ascribed to the sensitization of BP nanosheets by fully harvest of solar light and high electron-hole separation efficiency. We believe that the BP-Ag/TiO₂ nanocomposite will be an effective photofunctional material in full-spectrum solar energy conversion and opens up a new door for the development of solar light driven photocatalysts for the remediation of environmental pollution.

Keywords: Ag clusters; BP-Ag/TiO(2) nanocomposite; Black phosphorus nanosheets; Methylene blue; Photocatalysis.