Abstract
The new nanosheet/nanorod structured of Ag–HAp/Bi2O3 plasmonic photocatalyst synthesized by in–situ sol-gel method was shown the high efficient degradation of dangerous phenolic contaminated aqueous media. It can be highlighted as the main novelty and significance of the work that morphological and structural studies shown that incorporation and grown of Bi2O3 nanorods in the crystalline structure of HAp nanosheets with oxygen–vacancy is in charge of great catalytic activity. It is proposed that growth of HAp along of c–plane resulted in the construction of nanosheets bearing the available columnar Ca2+ ions on the {001} crystal facet for replacing with Bi3+ ions and preparation of Bi2O3 nanorods. Actually, in–situ substitution of bismuth ions with calcium ones made more O–vacancy on the hydroxyapatite nanosheets. The presence of O–vacancies on the preferred crystal facet {001} of hydroxyapatite acted as active centers for capturing of electrons photogenerated, oxygen gas, and pollutant molecules. 1D–nanorods of bismuth oxide was also provided nanosized routs for transferring of photoinduced electrons which led to high photocatalytic performance. Finally, decoration with Ag nanoclusters form a plasmonic mentioned nanocomposite which completely degraded phenol molecules within photocatalytic process. The best degradation rate of 10 ppm phenolic solution was measured as high as 98.7%.
NSTL
Elsevier