Preparation and Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity of AgCl-TiO2 Composite under Simulated Solar Light

AgCl-TiO2 nanocomposites with a core-shell structure were successfully prepared by hydrothermal treatment. And the products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer Emmett teller (BET) Analysis, and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). It is found that the composites consist of anatase TiO2 and cubic phase AgCl, which has higher surface area, stronger spectral response in visible region compared with pure TiO2. The photocatalytic activity of these samples was evaluated by photocatalytic decoloration of methyl orange (MO) under simulated solar light. The results show AgCl-TiO2 composite has much higher photocatalytic activity than that of pure TiO2, and it also has very good stability. The kinetic study showed that this photocatalytic process coincided with the Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) pseudo first order reaction model.