Enhanced photocatalytic properties of the 3D flower-like Mg-Al layered double hydroxides decorated with Ag2CO3 under visible light illumination

• 3D flower-like Ag2CO3/Mg-Al layered double hydroxide composite was prepared.
• The nanocomposites exhibited high photocatalytic activities on different organic pollutants.
• The mechanism of the enhanced activity were investigated.

A facile anion-exchange precipitation method was employed to synthesize 3D flower-like Ag2CO3/Mg-Al layered double hydroxide composite photocatalyst. Results showed that Ag2CO3 nanoparticles dispersed uniformly on the petals of the flower-like Mg-Al LDH. The obtained nanocomposites exhibited high photocatalytic activities on different organic pollutants (cationic and anionic dyes, phenol) under visible light illumination. The high photocatalytic activity can be ascribed to the special structure which accomplishes the wide-distribution of Ag2CO3 nanoparticles on the surfaces of the 3D flower-like nanocomposites. Therefore, it can provide much more active sites for the degradation of organic pollutant. Then the photocatalytic mechanism was also verified by reactive species trapping experiments in detail. The work would pave a facile way to prepare LDHs based hierarchical photocatalysts with high activity for the degradation of wide range organic pollutants under visible light irradiation.

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