Synergetic effect of Ag₂O as co-catalyst for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of phenol on N-TiO₂

A facile precipitation method was developed to synthesize the Ag₂O/N-TiO₂ composites. Their morphology, structure and photocatalytic performance in the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and phenol under visible light irradiation were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence spectroscopy and UV–vis absorption spectroscopy, respectively. The results show that the Ag₂O/N-TiO₂ composites exhibit excellent photocatalytic performance. The maximum degradation rates of MB and phenol are about 8.9 and 2.9 times that of pure N-TiO₂, respectively. The excellent photocatalytic performance is mainly ascribed to the synergetic effects of Ag₂O and N-TiO₂ including the increased light absorption and the reduced electron-hole pair recombination in N-TiO₂ with the presence of Ag₂O.