Development of new, highly efficient and stable visible light active photocatalyst Ag2ZrO3 for methylene blue degradation

• A new Ag2ZrO3 material prepared first time
• A visible light photocatalytic activity explores using methylene blue.
• Synthesis of material is very simple and material was obtained by solid state reaction.
• Ag2ZrO3 has superior photocatalytic activity than Ag3PO4 and P-25 Degussa TiO2.
• Ag2ZrO3 photocatalyst material is highly stable and reusable several times.

A novel visible light driven photocatalyst of Ag2ZrO3 was prepared by solid-state reaction technique for the first time and the photocatalytic properties were investigated. Reactive powder of the photocatalyst was obtained by heating a 1:2 molar mixture of zirconyl oxychloride and silver nitrate at 900 °C up to 24 h and characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, EDAX, and UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The photocatalytic degradation of aqueous methylene blue dye with Ag2ZrO3 as catalyst was investigated under visible light irradiation. The photocatalyst is superior over the known photocatalyst and has high stability and reusability.

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