Facile synthesis of Z-scheme Ag2CO3/Ag/AgBr ternary heterostructured nanorods with improved photostability and photoactivity

Ag-based compounds are regarded as a new family of highly efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic materials. However, in terms of photocorrosion nature of this type of photocatalyst, resulting in the serious deactivation, it is a huge challenge to develop simple and reliable strategies to synthesize Ag-based heterostructured nanostructures with good structural stability and high photoactivity. In this work, we have developed a facile reaction route, with visible-light induced reduction followed by an anion exchange, to prepare one-dimensional (1D) Ag2CO3/Ag/AgBr ternary heterostructured nanorods (HNRs) with tunable chemical compositions at room temperature. The as-obtained 1D Ag2CO3/Ag/AgBr HNRs exhibit significantly enhanced photostability and photocatalytic activity under visible-light illumination. The origin of enhanced photostability and photoactivity was further investigated by a radical-trapping test, and a possible Z-scheme photocatalytic mechanism has been proposed.