Room-temperature synthesis and high visible-light-induced photocatalytic activity of AgI/BiOI composites

The nanostructured high-yield visible-light-induced photocatalyst AgI/BiOI was synthesized by a facile and ions-exchange method at room temperature with Bi(NO3)3, AgNO3, and KI. Several characterization methods, such as X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area, and UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, were employed to study the phase structures, morphologies and optical properties of the samples. The photocatalytic properties of the as-prepared products were measured with the degradation of methyl orange (MO), rhodamine (RhB) and methyl blue (MB) at room temperature under visible light irradiation. By analyzing the zeta potential of AgI/BiOI composites, the interaction between the sample and the pollutants has been well investigated. It was found that the AgI amount in the AgI/BiOI composites played an important role in the corresponding photocatalytic properties. The photocatalytic performances of the AgI/BiOI composites were maintained for the cycling experiments.