Visible-light-driven dye degradation using a floriated ZnIn2S4/AgIn5S8 heteromicrosphere catalyst

Jiangluqi Song; Tongtong Jiang; Gengwu Ji; Wenting Zhang; Xiangyi Cheng; Wei Weng; Lixin Zhu; Xiaoliang Xu

doi:10.1039/C5RA17591G

Visible-light-driven dye degradation using a floriated ZnIn₂S₄/AgIn₅S₈ heteromicrosphere catalyst†

Jiangluqi Song,^a Tongtong Jiang,^a Gengwu Ji,^b Wenting Zhang,^a Xiangyi Cheng,^a Wei Weng,^a Lixin Zhu*^c and Xiaoliang Xu*^a

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* Corresponding authors

^a Key Laboratory of Strongly-Coupled Quantum Matter Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China

^b Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

^c Center Laboratory, First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230026, China

Abstract

We report the synthesis of ZnIn₂S₄/AgIn₅S₈ (ZIS/AIS) heteromicrospheres with tailorable composition and controllable band gap via partial cation exchange for the first time. Detailed studies of the as-prepared samples were carried out using SEM, TEM, STEM-EDS, XRD and layer-by-layer depth XPS analysis. Based on these results, possible cation exchange was proposed, and a critical concentration of Ag⁺ in the crystals was identified, below which cation exchange cannot occur. Besides, an enhanced photodegradation mechanism was discussed by analyzing the UV-vis-NIR reflectance spectra and the band structure, illustrating that an appropriate thickness of the AIS layer is beneficial to the generation of active species thus favoring the degradation reaction. Further application of dye degradation demonstrated a remarkable photodegradation rate up to 99.2%. Our results shed light on how the cation exchange occurs between ternary and binary crystals, which may open a new avenue to the field for synthesizing materials at the micro-scale.

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C5RA17591G
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 30 Aug 2015
Accepted: 23 Oct 2015
First published: 23 Oct 2015

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RSC Adv., 2015,5, 95943-95952

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Visible-light-driven dye degradation using a floriated ZnIn₂S₄/AgIn₅S₈ heteromicrosphere catalyst

J. Song, T. Jiang, G. Ji, W. Zhang, X. Cheng, W. Weng, L. Zhu and X. Xu, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 95943 DOI: 10.1039/C5RA17591G

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