Synthesis, characterization and excellent photocatalytic activity of Ag/AgBr/MoO3 composite photocatalyst

A novel composite photocatalyst Ag/AgBr/MoO3 was successfully synthesized via a simple precipitation method at room temperature. The obtained products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy in detail. The photocatalytic activity of the samples was evaluated by monitoring the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) solution under visible-light irradiation. The results showed that the photocatalytic activity of Ag/AgBr/MoO3 composite significantly enhanced and the degradation ratio of RhB reached 97.7 % after 15 min only. The excellent photocatalytic activity might be closely related to the large surface area, porosity structure and efficient separation of photoinduced electron-hole pairs. The possible reaction mechanism was also discussed.