Templated-synthesis of hierarchical Ag-AgBr hollow cubes with enhanced visible-light-responsive photocatalytic activity

Abstract A facile Cu 2 O-templated approach is demonstrated for the synthesis of hierarchical Ag-AgBr hollow nanucubes. The structural and morphological characterizations show that the as-prepared hollow Ag-AgBr nanocubes consist of dense nanotips, which exhibited an excellent photocatalytic activity under visible light due to the strong surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of Ag nanosturctures and the synergistic effect between Ag and AgBr. The photodegradation ability was evaluated by the degradation of the methyl orange (MO) dye under visible-light irradiation, showing that more than 90% of the MO could be decomposed in 20 min.