Syntheses, crystal structures, and photocatalytic properties of two ammonium-directed Ag–Sb–S complexes

Abstract

With ammonium ions as structure-directing agents, two novel silver thioantimonates (NH₄)AgSb₄S₇·H₂O (1) and (NH₄)AgSb₂S₄ (2) have been surfactant-thermally synthesized and fully characterized. Compound 1 features a three dimensional (3D) open framework while compound 2 possesses a two dimensional (2D) layer structure. The optical band gaps are estimated to be 1.70 eV for 1 and 1.84 eV for 2, exhibiting semiconductor properties for visible light absorption. The photocatalytic experiments demonstrated that both 1 and 2 were able to degrade crystal violet (CV) and rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation. Moreover, compounds 1 and 2 also displayed selective photocatalytic abilities in CV degradation.