Enhanced photocatalytic performance of Ag/TiO2 nanohybrid sensitized by black phosphorus nanosheets in visible and near-infrared light

• Published in: Journal of colloid and interface science 2019-01, Vol.534, p.1-11
• Main Authors: Wang, Xin, Xiang, Yuren, Zhou, Benqing, Zhang, Youming, Wu, Jiatao, Hu, Rui, Liu, Liwei, Song, Jun, Qu, Junle
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ag clusters; Black phosphorus nanosheets; BP-Ag/TiO2 nanocomposite; Methylene blue; Photocatalysis
• ISSN: 0021-9797; 1095-7103
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.09.013

[Display omitted] •BP-Ag/TiO2 nanocomposite was successfully prepared.•TiO2 maintained smaller Ag clusters and incorporated to BP nanosheets.•Enhanced photocatalytic activity was observed in visible and NIR light.•Photocatalytic activity of Ag/TiO2 was sensitized by BP nanosheets. The efficient utilization of solar energy for environmental cleaning has attracted great attention, where the key is to efficiently harvest the visible and near-infrared (NIR) light which occupies approximately 95% of the solar light energy. Recently, black phosphorus (BP), as a new staring 2D material, has been extensively studied as photocatalytic materials due to its broad light absorption and tunable bandgap. Herein, we report a novel ternary nanocomposite, BP-Ag/TiO2, prepared through controlled deposition of Ag clusters on the surface of TiO2 nanocrystals and then incorporated to BP nanosheets. The BP-Ag/TiO2 nanocomposite has shown excellent photocatalytic activity towards the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under visible and NIR light irradiation. About 100% and even 25% of MB was degraded in 85 min under >420 nm and >780 nm irradiation, respectively. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of BP-Ag/TiO2 nanocomposite was mainly ascribed to the sensitization of BP nanosheets by fully harvest of solar light and high electron-hole separation efficiency. We believe that the BP-Ag/TiO2 nanocomposite will be an effective photofunctional material in full-spectrum solar energy conversion and opens up a new door for the development of solar light driven photocatalysts for the remediation of environmental pollution.