Facile Synthesis of Hierarchical Hollow Mesoporous Ag/WO3 Spheres with High Photocatalytic Performance

Hollow mesoporous tungsten trioxide spheres (HMTTS) have been synthesized by spray drying method combined with proper calcination and Ag/HMTTS are prepared on the basis of a silver mirror reaction. HMTTS are composed of nanoparticles with diameter of 20-70 nm. The accumulation of nanoparticles generates pores with the mean pore size of about 45 nm. The formation mechanism of hollow mesoporous structure is studied in this work. Ag in WO3 narrows the band gap and derceases the recombination possibility of the photogenerated electron hole pairs, which enhance photocatalytic activity of Ag/WO3 composites. The degradation rate of methylene blue is 98.16% under UV light illumination for 75 min and 49.07% under visible light irradiation for 150 min by Ag/WO3 composites.