Excellent photocatalytic degradation and disinfection performance of a novel bifunctional Ag@AgSCN nanostructure with exposed {−112} facets

Abstract

A novel bifunctional Ag@AgSCN nanostructure with excellent photocatalytic degradation and antimicrobial performance has been successfully prepared by a simple precipitation method. Both the presence of PVP and the dropping rate of AgNO₃ solution have a great effect on the triangle-shaped Ag@AgSCN nanostructure with exposed {−112} facets. The degradation constant (k) of triangle-shaped Ag@AgSCN (0.28 min⁻¹) is three times as much as that of Ag@AgSCN nanoparticles (0.09 min⁻¹), and also shows better bactericidal activity than Ag@AgSCN nanoparticles. Furthermore, the triangle-shaped Ag@AgSCN exhibits excellent structure stability in the cycling experiments, and reaches six cycles and four cycles in the photocatalytic degradation and antimicrobial experiments, respectively. The novel triangle-shaped Ag@AgSCN structure provided high-index facets with high catalytic activity, increased the adsorption amount of phenol and improved the separation efficiency of the electron–hole pairs, which resulted in more active species being produced over triangle-shaped Ag@AgSCN than Ag@AgSCN nanoparticles. The effect of the active species on the photocatalytic activity is in the order: ˙O₂⁻ radicals > h⁺ > ˙OH radicals.