Fabrication and characterization of Ag/AgCl@ZIF-8 hybrid nanostructure and used its as photocatalyst for degradation of rhodamine B under visible light

Recently, Ag/AgCl has been widely researched by various methods and used as photocatalyst to degrade organic dyes due to its excellent photocatalytic properties under visible light. In this paper, a novel visible-light-driven plasmonic photocatalyst Ag/AgCl@ZIF-8 was successfully prepared by depositing AgCl nanoparticles into the ZIF-8 crystals, and then reducing partial Ag + ions of AgCl nanoparticles to Ag 0 species under UV light irradiation. All as-synthesized samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, BET and UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectra. The photocatalytic activity of all as-synthesized samples was evaluated by degradation RhB solution under visible light irradiation. The results show that AgCl nanoparticles are well dispersed and inlaid in the body of ZIF-8 crystals, and partial Ag + ions of AgCl nanoparticles are reduced into Ag 0 species after 30 min of UV light irradiation.The as-synthesized Ag/AgCl@ZIF-8 keeps the high surface area of ZIF-8 and holds the excellent photo-properties of Ag/AgCl. The photocatalytic activity of all as-synthesized sample were evaluated by degradation RhB solution under visible light irradiation. Ag/AgCl@ZIF-8 exhibited the highest photocatalystic activity, which could degrade 99.12% RhB. The synergistic effect of Ag/AgCl and ZIF-8 makes Ag/AgCl@ZIF-8 possible to be used for the degradation of organic dye by using sunlight.