The formation of visible light-driven Ag/Ag2O photocatalyst with excellent property of photocatalytic activity and photocorrosion inhibition.

Ag/Ag2O composites were prepared via an extremely simple solvent-free chemical technique. The obtained Ag/Ag2O samples exhibited superior visible-light degradation efficiency for methyl orange removal. The degradation rate constant of as-obtained composite is almost 2 times as that of commercial Ag2O, and has only little change after five cycles of utilization. The excellent photocatalytic properties of Ag/Ag2O materials could be ascribed to desirable absorption property and surface plasmon resonance of metal silver on the surface of semiconductor Ag2O. Meanwhile, the unstable and photo-sensitive disadvantages of commercial Ag2O due to the photocorrosion could be largely suppressed in the presence of metallic Ag for Ag/Ag2O composites, which plays an important role as an electron sink to receive the photo-generated electrons from Ag2O, accordingly restraining the reduction of Ag+ in Ag2O and improving the recyclability of Ag2O. With the assistance of scavengers and ESR technique, the h+ and O2- were proved to be crucial reactive species in the pathways of photocatalytic degradation reaction.