Fabrication of highly efficient visible light driven Ag/CeO2 photocatalyst for degradation of organic pollutants

• Simple approach for the fabrication of Ag/CeO2 nanocomposites.
• The Ag/CeO2 nanocomposites show excellent photocatalytic degradation towards the organic pollutants.
• Favorable conditions for the degradation were optimized.
• Main reactive oxidative species were found out by trapping experiment.

Ag/CeO2 nanocomposite photocatalysts were successfully synthesized by facile hydrothermal method which is a new kind of material for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. This material exhibited superior activity and could degrade the rhodamine B (RhB) dye solution within 70 min, under visible light irradiation. The enhanced photocatalytic degradation was facilitated by the generation of huge amount of OH radicals which is well supported by the trapping experiment. The efficacy of Ag/CeO2 is much better than that of pristine CeO2 which might be due to the lower recombination of charge carriers. The mechanism of enhanced photocatalytic activity has also been proposed. The high photocatalytic activity of Ag/CeO2 nanocomposites may be attributed to the surface plasmon resonance effect of Ag nanoparticles, which is highly dispersed on the surface of CeO2.

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