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Ag/AgBr coupled low crystalline Nb2O5 as an effective photocatalyst for the degradation of rhodamine B

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Abstract

A novel Ag/AgBr/Nb2O5 heterojunction photocatalyst was successfully developed via a facile solvothermal method combined with deposition–precipitation. The morphology and composition of the Ag/AgBr/Nb2O5 photocatalyst were investigated by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray energy-dispersive spectrometry, respectively. The results showed that metallic Ag was formed on the surface of the AgBr by an in situ photoreaction. The low crystalline Nb2O5 (L-Nb2O5) substrate provides the photocatalyst with a high specific area and numerous active sites for catalysis, while the combination of the Ag/AgBr with L-Nb2O5 effectively facilitates the separation of photo-generated charge carriers. The photocatalytic activities of the samples were measured using the degradation of an aqueous solution of rhodamine B under different LEDs with UV (365 nm), yellow (595 nm), and white (400 nm ≤ λ ≤ 800 nm) light. The Ag/AgBr/L-Nb2O5 photocatalyst displayed a much higher photocatalytic activity than bare L-Nb2O5 under UV and visible-light irradiation.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the postdoctoral fellowships from the China Scholarship Council (Grant No. 201708505127), the “Chunhui Project” of Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (Grant No. Z2016175), and the Scientific Research Project of Fuling District (Grant No. FLKW, 2017ABA1007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Yangtze Normal University, 408100, Chongqing, China

    Peng Zhang & Yuanming Ran

  2. Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin for Materials and Energy, Institute of Applied Materials, 14109, Berlin, Germany

    Peng Zhang

  3. College of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science & Technology Beijing, 100083, Beijing, China

    Xiaojuan Jian

  4. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangtze Normal University, 408100, Chongqing, China

    Jianhong Tan & Guoqing Zhang

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  1. Peng Zhang
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Zhang, P., Jian, X., Tan, J. et al. Ag/AgBr coupled low crystalline Nb2O5 as an effective photocatalyst for the degradation of rhodamine B. Journal of Materials Research 35, 1692–1702 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2020.144

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