Synthesis of AgCl hollow cubes and their application in photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants

A cuboidal AgCl hollow nanostructure has been synthesized by a simple one-pot reaction using AgNO3 and CCl4 as precursors. The synthesized product is characterized by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The AgCl product consists of well-dispersed hollow cubes with a side length of 600–900 nm and a cavity size of 400–600 nm. The formation mechanism is investigated, and it is revealed that the growth of the hollow cubes involves a dissolution–precipitation process accompanied by ion diffusion. Light irradiation of the AgCl product causes the formation of a plasmonic Ag/AgCl photocatalyst, which exhibits excellent photocatalytic activity for the degradation of organic contaminants of methyl orange (MO).