Hydrothermal synthesis, nonlinear optical property and photocatalytic activity of a non-centrosymmetric AgIO3 photocatalyst under UV and visible light irradiation

• AgIO3 as a novel photocatalyst was synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method.
• It exhibits excellent photocatalytic activity both under UV and visible light.
• The high photocatalytic activity is attributed to the non-centrosymmetric structure.
• AgIO3 also shows high stability resistant to photocorrosion.

AgIO3 as a novel photocatalyst was prepared via a facile hydrothermal route. The microstructure, electronic structure, optical and nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of AgIO3 were investigated by a series of experimental and theoretical methods, including X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high resolution TEM (HRTEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS), second harmonic generation (SHG) measurements and the first principle calculation. The results revealed that AgIO3 exhibits a strong SHG response and excellent photocatalytic performance with high stability under both UV and visible light irradiation. The advantages of this material, such as large polarizability resulted from the NCS structure, polar IO3− anion and layered structure should be responsible for the high photocatalytic activity of AgIO3. The present work may shed new light on the design of multifunctional materials.

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