One-step synthesis of Ag2S-TiO2 and its photocatalytic degradation of ethyl paraben wastewater

At first, naked TiO2 was prepared by sol-gel method. Silver nitrate and thiourea were respectively used as silver source and sulfur source added to form a TiO2 sol and Ag2S polymer blend system. Then, the properties of Ag2S-TiO2 was one-step synthesized and investigated by photocatalytic experiment and material characterization. According to the characterization results, Ag2S-TiO2 is anatase with a band gap of 3.14 eV, a specific surface area of 39.80 m2/g, and an average pore diameter of 3.56 nm. The results of photocatalytic experiments show that Ag2S-TiO2 can efficiently remove ethyl paraben within 2 h. Quenching experiments show that both •OH and photogenerated holes have a large effect on photocatalytic performance.