Engineering highly dispersed AgI nanoparticles on hierarchical In2S3 hollow nanotube to construct Z-scheme heterojunction for efficient photodegradation of insecticide imidacloprid

Jushi Weng; Jun Chen; Yifei Xu; Xinru Hu; Chuangyun Guo; Yang Yang; Jingyi Sun; Lianshe Fu; Qing Wang; Jiamin Wei; Tinghai Yang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.08.169

Engineering highly dispersed AgI nanoparticles on hierarchical In₂S₃ hollow nanotube to construct Z-scheme heterojunction for efficient photodegradation of insecticide imidacloprid

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Dec 15;652(Pt B):1367-1380. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.08.169. Epub 2023 Aug 27.

Authors

Jushi Weng¹, Jun Chen¹, Yifei Xu¹, Xinru Hu¹, Chuangyun Guo¹, Yang Yang¹, Jingyi Sun¹, Lianshe Fu², Qing Wang³, Jiamin Wei⁴, Tinghai Yang⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu Laboratory of Precious Metals Processing Technology and Application, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou 213001, PR China.
² Department of Physics, Department of Chemistry and CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
³ School of Petrochemical Engineering, Advanced Catalysis and Green Manufacturing Collaborative Innovation Center, Changzhou University, Changzhou 213164, PR China. Electronic address: 15261392025@163.com.
⁴ School of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu Laboratory of Precious Metals Processing Technology and Application, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou 213001, PR China. Electronic address: weijiamin@jsut.edu.cn.
⁵ School of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu Laboratory of Precious Metals Processing Technology and Application, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou 213001, PR China. Electronic address: yangtinghai@jsut.edu.cn.

PMID: 37659306
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.08.169

Abstract

Increasing the exposure of active sites and improving the intrinsic activity are necessary considerations for designing a highly efficient photocatalyst. Herein, an In₂S₃/AgI stable Z-scheme heterojunction with highly dispersed AgI nanoparticles (NPs) is synthesized by the mild self-templated and in-situ ion exchange strategy. Impressively, the optimized In₂S₃/AgI-300 Z-scheme heterojunction exhibits superior photodegradation activity (0.020 min^-1) for the decomposition of insecticide imidacloprid (IMD), which is extremely higher than that of pure In₂S₃ (0.002 min^-1) and AgI (0.013 min^-1). Importantly, the three-dimensional excitation-emission matrix (3D EEMs) fluorescence spectra, high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), the photoelectrochemical tests, radical trapping experiment, and electron spin resonance (ESR) technique are performed to clarify the possible degradation pathway and mechanism of IMD by the In₂S₃/AgI-300 composite. The enhanced photocatalytic performance is attributed to the highly dispersed AgI NPs on hierarchical In₂S₃ hollow nanotube and the construction of In₂S₃/AgI Z-scheme heterojunction, which can not only increase active site exposure, but also improve its intrinsic activity, facilitating rapid charge transfer rate and excellent electron-hole pairs separation efficiency. Meanwhile, the practical application potential of the In₂S₃/AgI-300 composite is systematically investigated. This study opens a new insight for designing catalysts with high photocatalytic performance through a convenient approach.

Keywords: Active site; Imidacloprid; Intrinsic activity; Photodegradation; Z-scheme heterojunction.