C, F co-doping Ag/TiO₂ with visible light photocatalytic performance toward degrading Rhodamine B

The organic pollutants in industrial wastewater continuously endanger human health. Therefore, effective treatment of organic pollutants is very urgent. Photocatalytic degradation technology is an excellent solution to remove it. TiO₂ photocatalysts are easy to prepare and have high catalytic activity, unfortunately, TiO₂ only absorbs ultraviolet light limiting its utilization of visible light. In this study, a facile environmentally friendly synthesis of Ag-coated on micro-wrinkled TiO₂-based catalysts in order to extend the absorption of Visible light. Firstly, a fluorinated titanium dioxide precursor was prepared by a one-step solvothermal method, and the precursor was calcined at high temperature in a nitrogen atmosphere to form a carbon dopant, and then a surface silver-deposited carbon/fluorine co-doped TiO₂ photocatalyst C/F-Ag-TiO₂ was prepared by a hydrothermal method The results showed that the Ag was coated on the wrinkled TiO₂ layer and C/F-Ag-TiO₂ photocatalyst was synthetized successfully. Benefit from the synergistic effect of doped carbon and fluorine atoms in combination with the quantum size effect of the surface silver nanoparticles, the band gap energy of C/F-Ag-TiO₂ (2.56 eV) is obviously lower than anatase (3.2eV). The photocatalyst achieved an impressive degradation rate of 84.2% for Rhodamine B in 4 h, with a degradation rate constant of 0.367 h^-1, which was 17 times higher than that of P25 under visible light. Therefore, the C/F-Ag-TiO₂ composite is a promising candidate as a highly efficient photocatalyst for environmental remediation.