Novel Synthesis of Plasmonic Ag/AgCl@TiO2 Continues Fibers with Enhanced Broadband Photocatalytic Performance

The plasmonic Ag/AgCl@TiO2 fiber (S-CTF) photocatalyst was synthesized by a two-step approach, including the sol-gel and force spinning method for the preparation of TiO2 fibers (TF), and the impregnation-precipitation-photoreduction strategy for the deposition of Ag/AgCl onto the fibers. NaOH aqueous solution was utilized to hydrolyze TiCl4, to synthesize TF and remove the byproduct HCl, and the produced NaCl was recycled for the formation and deposition of Ag/AgCl. The surface morphology, specific surface area, textural properties, crystal structure, elemental compositions and optical absorption of S-CTF were characterized by a series of instruments. These results revealed that the AgCl and Ag-0 species were deposited onto TF successfully, and the obtained S-CTF showed improved visible light absorption due to the surface plasmon resonance of Ag-0. In the photocatalytic degradation of X-3B, S-CTF exhibited significantly enhanced activities under separate visible or UV light irradiation, in comparison to TF.