Facile synthesis of plasmonic Ag/AgCl/polydopamine-TiO2 fibers for efficient visible photocatalysis

Abstract An efficient Ag/AgCl/polydopamine-TiO2 fiber (SCP-TF) photocatalyst was synthesized via a facile method. The presence of polydopamine (PDA) not only facilitated the adsorption of Ag + and its reduction to Ag 0 but also acted as a stabilizer to anchor Ag/AgCl nanoparticles (NPs) onto as-prepared TiO2 fibers (TF) and as one bridge to transfer the electrons from Ag0 to the surface of TiO 2 in the photocatalytic process. A series of instruments were employed to characterize the physicochemical properties of the obtained fiber photocatalysts. The prepared SCP-TF exhibits enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity and excellent stability in the photodegradation of X-3B due to the combined effect of surface plasma resonance of Ag0 and the existence of PDA. The removal rate of X-3B for SCP-TF is up to 97% after 120 min of visible light irradiation, which is about 4 times higher than the pure TiO2 fibers.