Fabrication, physicochemical properties and photocatalytic activity of Ag0.68V2O5 hierarchical architecture assembled by ultrathin nanosheets

The micro-nano structure control of Ag-based composite oxides is very important for improving the performance applied in advanced functional materials. In this work, the Ag0.68V2O5 hierarchical architecture was fabricated by insertion of Ag+ into layered V2O5 through a simple one-step hydrothermal method. The construction mechanism of this hierarchical architecture was proposed, which may be continuous intercalation reaction, Ostwald ripening and self-assembly process. Moreover, the light harvest range and separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs based on Ag0.68V2O5 photocatalyst are improved distinctly relative to that of pristine V2O5. It directly results in the superior photocatalytic performance for dye degradation over Ag0.68V2O5 hierarchical architecture, which is also far higher than that of commercial V2O5 and TiO2 (P25) for removing dye pollutants. (C) 2018 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.