Facile Preparation of AgIn5S8 Pompon-like Microspheres with High Visible Light Photocatalytic Activity

The pompon-like microspheres of AgIn5S8 with a cubic phase were prepared in a low temperature aqueous solution using mercaptoacetic acid as capping agent and thioacetamide as sulfur source and characterized with XRD, UV-vis absorption spectra, SEM and BET analysis. It is interesting that the microspheres are quite open and puffy. More importantly, the obtained microspheres showed remarkable photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methyl orange under visible light irradiation, which is probably due to the pompon-like morphology for providing reactive sites and facilitating the charge transfer between the target pollutant and the photocatalyst. This method could be extended to the synthesis of other functional micro/nano materials.