Construction of Ultrafine Ag2S NPs Anchored onto 3D Network Rodlike Bi2SiO5 and Insight into the Photocatalytic Mechanism

Jie Xiong; Hong-Yan Zeng; Jin-Feng Peng; Sheng Xu; Di-Yang Peng; Zhuo-Lin Yang

doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c01665

Construction of Ultrafine Ag₂S NPs Anchored onto 3D Network Rodlike Bi₂SiO₅ and Insight into the Photocatalytic Mechanism

Inorg Chem. 2022 Jul 25;61(29):11387-11398. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c01665. Epub 2022 Jul 14.

Authors

Jie Xiong¹, Hong-Yan Zeng¹, Jin-Feng Peng², Sheng Xu¹, Di-Yang Peng¹, Zhuo-Lin Yang¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemical Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan, Hunan 411105, China.
² School of Mechanical Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan, Hunan 411105, China.

PMID: 35834802
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c01665

Abstract

A novel three-dimensional (3D) network rodlike Ag₂S/Bi₂SiO₅ photocatalyst with a p-n heterostructure composed of ultrafine Ag₂S nanoparticles (NPs) and Bi₂SiO₅ nanosheets was prepared using an anionic self-regulation strategy by a two-step hydrothermal process. The architecture facilitated the efficient transfer and separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. The optimal Ag₂S/Bi₂SiO₅ composite (ABSO_0.10) exhibited an excellent reduction activity (93.5% Cr(VI) removal in wastewater containing 50 mg·L^-1 Cr(VI) within 90 min under visible light), which was about 11.2 and 25.6 times higher than that of the pristine Ag₂S and virgin Bi₂SiO₅, respectively. Assisted by experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, a possible photocatalytic mechanism for Cr(VI) reduction over the Ag₂S/Bi₂SiO₅ composite under visible-light irradiation was proposed.