Efficient visible-light-active of Ag2CO3/Nb2O5 /NB2O5 photocatalyst for EDCs removal in wastewater

Photocatalysis has become more attractive and important since it has a great potential in solving environmental problems. One of the most important aspects of environmental photocatalysis is the selection of photo-active materials. Ag-based semiconductor materials are currently catching the interest and research efforts of numerous material researchers due to their wide range of applications especially photocatalyst for wastewater treatment. Silver carbonates (Ag2CO3) is a common p-type semiconductor with a moderate band gap of 2.30 eV has also caught interest for its high-performance photocatalytic performance and anti-bacterial properties. To further improve the separation of photo-induced charge carriers, Ag2CO3 was employed to couple with niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5) can greatly accelerate the charge separation. In this work, hybrid Ag2CO3/Nb2O5 composite as a photo-active material was successfully prepared by a facile chemical precipitation method. The photocatalytic activities of the hybrid samples were evaluated by monitoring the photodegradation of bisphenol A (BPA) under visible light irradiation. The hybrid Ag2CO3/Nb2O5 composite sample exhibited promising results in the photocatalysis process with BPA removal of 79.09 % and showed good stability and reusability that can be used up to 4th cycle. The enhanced performance of hybrid Ag2CO3/Nb2O5 photocatalyst shows that it has potential for designing the dye waste-water treatment.