Facile fabrication of highly efficient AgI/ZnO heterojunction and its application of methylene blue and rhodamine B solutions degradation under natural sunlight

Abstract The AgI/ZnO heterojunction was successfully synthesized by in situ deposition method and was found to be a natural sunlight driven photocatalyst. The photocatalytic efficiency of AgI/ZnO was evaluated by the degradation of rhodamine B under visible light irradiation. The influence of various operational parameters such as the effect of loading amount, catalyst dosage and initial RhB concentration on the photodegradation was investigated in detail and the results were discussed. The results indicated that the AgI/ZnO composites displayed much higher photocatalytic performances over ZnO as well as AgI. Moreover, the catalyst obviously showed higher efficiency for the degradation of methylene blue and rhodamine B under natural sunlight than a 500 W Xe lamp, and nearly 100% of dyes were degraded only in 120 min under the optimum conditions. At last, the quenching effects of different scavengers suggested that the reactive •OH and h + play the major role in the RhB degradation.