Nitrogen-doped graphene modified AgX@Ag (X = Br, Cl) composites with improved visible light photocatalytic activity and stability

•AgX@Ag (X = Br, Cl) submicroparticles are integrated with nitrogen-doped graphene.•N-Graphene doping increases separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs.•N-Graphene/AgX@Ag exhibits good photocatalytic activity under visible light.•N-Graphene/AgX@Ag has a relatively high stability.

Nitrogen-doped graphene modified AgX@Ag (NG–AgX@Ag, X = Br, Cl) composites were prepared by a simple co-precipitation method under ambient condition. The composites possessed higher photocatalytic activity than corresponding bare AgX@Ag and TiO2–AgX@Ag towards degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) aqueous solution under visible light irradiation, which can be ascribed to the corporative effects of more light harvest, enhanced adsorption capacity and more efficient separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs after integrated with nitrogen-doped graphene. The NG–AgX@Ag (X = Br, Cl) composites exhibited efficiencies of 86% and 89% for photodegradation of RhB, which were about 2 times and 1.8 times of corresponding bare AgX@Ag (X = Br, Cl), respectively. The composites also had a relatively high stability.

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