Biomaterial-assisted synthesis of AgCl@Ag concave cubes with efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity

Abstract

A facile biomaterial-assisted method has been developed to fabricate AgCl@Ag concave cubes. The biomaterial agar gel was used to moderate the reaction process by providing a reaction matrix to mediate the diffusion of reactants and confine the growth of AgCl@Ag concave cubes. The whole reaction process was performed under mild conditions without heat treatment or organic additives. The as-formed AgCl@Ag concave cubes as a photocatalyst exhibit effective activity for photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MO) under visible-light irradiation, which is mainly attributed to the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of Ag nanoparticles.