Soft chemical in situ synthesis and photocatalytic performance of 1D Ag/AgCl/V2O5 hetero-nanostructures

•1D hetero-nanostructure Ag/AgCl/V2O5 was obtained by in situ reaction.•The key to success is the reaction of AgVO3 with HCl gas.•This hetero-nanostructures presented stronger photocatalytic performance.

The chemical in situ process was used for the synthesis of one-dimensional (1D) hetero-nanostructure Ag/AgCl/V2O5. Firstly, the 1D α-AgVO3 nanostructures as precursor in situ reacted with HCl gas under anhydrous condition, forming 1D AgCl/V2O5·H2O(amorphous). And then 1D AgCl/V2O5·H2O in situ transformed into the 1D AgCl/V2O5 via the heat-treatment. Subsequently, the photo-reduction of 1D AgCl/V2O5 gave a 1D hetero-nanostructure Ag/AgCl/V2O5. The 1D Ag/AgCl/V2O5 hetero-nanostructures were characterized by XRD, XPS, FE-SEM and TEM. The 1D Ag/AgCl/V2O5 sample was able to well photodegrade RhB and the photodegradation rate reaches 93.8% after 180 min under visible light irradiation.