Ag/AgBr/graphene oxide nanocomposite synthesized via oil/water and water/oil microemulsions: a comparison of sunlight energized plasmonic photocatalytic activity.

In this article, we report that Ag/AgBr nanostructures and the corresponding graphene oxide (GO) hybridized nanocomposite, Ag/AgBr/GO, could be facilely synthesized by means of a surfactant-assisted assembly protocol, where an oil/water microemulsion is used as the synthesis medium. We show that thus-produced nanomaterials could be used as highly efficient and stable plasmonic photocatalysts for the photodegradation of methyl orange (MO) pollutant under sunlight irradiation. Compared with the bare Ag/AgBr nanospecies, Ag/AgBr/GO displays distinctly enhanced photocatalytic activity. More importantly, the as-prepared nanostructures exhibit higher photocatalytic activity than that of the corresponding Ag/AgBr-based nanomaterials synthesized viaa water/oil microemulsion and than that of the corresponding Ag/AgCl-based nanospecies synthesized by an oil/water microemulsion. An explanation has been proposed for these interesting findings. Our results suggest that thus-manufactured Ag/AgBr/GO plasmonic photocatalysts are promising alternatives to the traditional UV light or visible-light driven photocatalysts.