Highly enhanced photodegradation of emerging pollutants by Ag/AgCl/Ta2O5_ x mesocrystals

Fabricating rapid and high-efficient charge-transfer pathways is contributing to improving charge separation and receiving extensive concerns in preparation of semiconductors composites photocatalysts. In this work, ternary Ag/AgCl/Ta2O5_x mesocrystals were fabricated for visible-light photodegradation of emerging pollutants by introducing Ag/AgCl nanoparticles into defects engineered Ta2O5_x mesocrystals. The prepared composites showed efficient visible-light absorption and efficient visible-light photodegradation of emerging pollutants, mainly attributed to the fabricating of high-efficient Z-scheme charge-transfer pathways between Ag/AgCl and Ta2O5_x mesocrystals. Note that, the experimental results also demonstrated the significant roles of defects engineered Ta2O5_ x mesocrystals in fabricating high-efficient Z-scheme charge-transfer pathways. Besides, the prepared Ag/AgCl and Ta2O5_ x composites could be employed for efficient visible-light photodegradation of many other organic contaminants. Current work indicates a promising and high-performance visible-light composite photocatalyst for dealing with emerging contaminants.