| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1644765 | Materials Letters | 2014 | 4 Pages |
•Ag2CO3/TiO2(Vo·) was prepared via a precipitation method.•Ag2CO3/TiO2(Vo·) shows high and stable visible light photocatalytic activity.•Photo-corrosion of Ag2CO3 happens under visible light reducing the activity.•The nascent metallic Ag formed from photo-corrosion is conducive to the catalyst.•The synergistic effect between oxygen vacancy and fresh-formed Ag is proposed.
Anatase TiO2 containing a large amount of single-electron-trapped oxygen vacancy (denoted as TiO2(Vo·); Vo· refers to single-electron-trapped oxygen vacancies which are abridged as SETOVs) was combined with Ag2CO3 to prepare Ag2CO3/TiO2(Vo·) by the precipitation method. Ag Auger MNN spectra displayed that photo-corrosion of Ag2CO3 happened during photocatalytic process generating nascent metallic Ag. The photo-corrosion is originally not conducive to the photocatalysts. However, the nascent metallic Ag generated on the surface of TiO2(Vo·) and SETOVs in TiO2(Vo·) matrix jointly function to compensate for the gradually reduced visible light photocatalytic activity of Ag2CO3/TiO2(Vo·) owing to photo-corrosion of Ag2CO3. It is just the synergistic effect between the oxygen vacancies and nascent metallic Ag that accounts for the high and stable photocatalytic activity of Ag2CO3/TiO2(Vo·) towards the oxidation of propylene under visible light irradiation.
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