Photocatalytic Degradation of Rhodamine B by Recyclable AgBr/Polypyrrole(PPy) Nano-Catalysts

We investigated the removal of the organic dye rhodamine B in wastewater with recyclable AgBr/polypyrrole (PPy) nano-photocatalysts. With PPy as an active base for electron transfer, and hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as both the soft-templating agent and the bromine source, a series of AgBr/PPy nano-photocatalysts containing various proportions of silver were prepared in a convenient one-step synthesis procedure. The synthesized catalysts were characterized by TG analysis to reveal that, in comparison with pure PPy, the interaction between PPy and AgBr led to increased thermal stability. Chemical combination of PPy and AgBr was observed through XRD and XPS analyses. For the morphology study, the AgBr particles were found to be well dispersed in the PPy nanowire network from SEM results. In the photodegradation experiments, up to 92% rhodamine B was degraded by the AgBr/PPy catalysts in the period of 1 hour under 254 nm UV light. The catalysts could maintain 60% catalytic efficiency after 3 cycles in the recyclability test.