TiO2 hollow nanofibers grafted Ag/AgCl with more AgCl {111} facet for enhanced photocatalytic activity

Ag/AgCl composite as an alternative visible-light photocatalyst has attracted extensive interests; however, the high charge carrier recombination rate and short-term photocatalytic durability limit their practical application. In the present work, TiO2 hollow nanofibers (ELTiO2) grafted Ag/AgCl is fabricated via electrospinning-precipitation method. Compared with Ag/AgCl and Ag/AgCl-SGTiO(2) (sol-gel synthetized TiO2), 2.89 and 1.59-fold enhancement in the photodegradation rate toward MO is observed over Ag/AgCl-ELTiO2 under visible light irradiation. The enhancement of photocatalytic activity is mainly attributed to the higher content of the exposed AgCl {111} facet, which is beneficial for the separation of photogenerated carriers and accounts for more active sites. Moreover, Ag/AgCl-ELTiO2 shows better photostability than bare Ag/AgCl. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.