Boosting the activity for organic pollutants removal of In2O3 by loading Ag particles under natural sunlight irradiation

Jiahui Jin; Chengyin Liu; Chunhui Dai; Chao Zeng; Yushuai Jia; Xin Liu

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2024.118649

Boosting the activity for organic pollutants removal of In₂O₃ by loading Ag particles under natural sunlight irradiation

Environ Res. 2024 Mar 6;251(Pt 1):118649. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118649. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Jiahui Jin¹, Chengyin Liu², Chunhui Dai³, Chao Zeng⁴, Yushuai Jia¹, Xin Liu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Advanced Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Lab of Fluorine and Silicon for Energy Materials and Chemistry of Ministry of Education, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330022, China.
² School of Environmental and Material Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai, 264005, Shandong, China.
³ Jiangxi Key Laboratory for Mass Spectrometry and Instrumentation, East China University of Technology, Nanchang, 330013, China.
⁴ Institute of Advanced Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Lab of Fluorine and Silicon for Energy Materials and Chemistry of Ministry of Education, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330022, China. Electronic address: czeng@jxnu.edu.cn.
⁵ Institute of Advanced Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Lab of Fluorine and Silicon for Energy Materials and Chemistry of Ministry of Education, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330022, China. Electronic address: liuxin@jxnu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38458589
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118649

Abstract

A novel photocatalyst In₂O₃ with loading Ag particles is prepared via a facile one-step annealing method in air atmosphere. The Ag/In₂O₃ exhibits considerable photoactivity for decomposing sulfisoxazole (SOX), tetracycline hydrochloride (TC), and rhodamine B (RhB) under natural sunlight irradiation, which is much higher than that of pristine In₂O₃ and Ag species. After natural sunlight irradiation for 100 min, 70.6% of SOX, 65.6% of TC, and 81.9% of RhB are degraded over Ag/In₂O₃, and their corresponding chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal ratio achieve 95.4%, 38.4%, and 93.6%, respectively. A batch of experiments for degrading SOX with adjusting pollutant solution pH and adding coexisting anions over Ag/In₂O₃ are carried out to estimate its practical application prospect. Particularly, the as-prepared Ag/In₂O₃ possesses a superior stability, which exhibits no noticeable deactivation in decomposing SOX after eight cycles' reactions. In addition, the Ag/In₂O₃ coated on a frosted glass plate, also possesses a superior activity and stability for SOX removal, which solve the possible second pollution of residual powdered catalyst in water. Ag particles on In₂O₃ working as electron accepter improve charge separation and transfer efficiency, as well as the photo-absorption and organic pollutants affinity, leading to the boosted photoactivity of Ag/In₂O₃. The photocatalytic mechanism for degrading SOX and degradation process over Ag/In₂O₃ has been systemically investigated and proposed. This work offers an archetype for the rational design of highly efficient photocatalysts by metal loading.

Keywords: Ag loading; Degradation; In(2)O(3); Natural sunlight; Photocatalysis.