Short communicationSynthesis of novel Ag/Ag2O heterostructures with solar full spectrum (UV, visible and near-infrared) light-driven photocatalytic activity and enhanced photoelectrochemical performance

- Utilize solar wide spectrum (UV, visible, and NIR) in photocatalysis
- The Ag/Ag2O heterostructures show an enhanced PEC performance under NIR irradiation.
- The narrow band gap make the Ag/Ag2O heterostructures have NIR light absorption.

Here we report the facile synthesis of Ag/Ag2O heterostructures, which exhibit excellent solar full spectrum (UV, visible and near-infrared) photocatalytic activity and an enhanced photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance under irradiation of near-infrared light. The improved photocatalytic property and PEC performance originated from the synergistic effect on the narrow band gap of Ag2O, plasmon enhancement of metallic Ag in-situ reduced from Ag2O, and metal-semiconductor (Ag-Ag2O) Mott-Schottky heterojunction.