Preparation, characterization and photocatalytic activity of AgBr/BiVO4 composite photocatalyst.

The AgBr/BiVO4 heterostructure were synthesized. The heterostructure materials were characterized by XRD, DRS, SEM-EDS, TEM, XPS and TG-DSC. In order to investigate the photocatalytic activity of AgBr/BiVO4 heterostructures, the methylene blue (MB) dye was used as a model compound. The result suggested that under visible light irradiation, the degradation efficiency of AgBr/BiVO4 reached 83.1% within 2.5 h, which was higher than that of the pure BiVO4. The presence of AgBr significantly increased the photocatalytic activity of the composites. The photocatalytic mechanism was also discussed.