Sono-precipitation of AgCrO-C composite enhanced by carbon-based materials (AC, GO, CNT and CN) and its activity in photocatalytic degradation of acid orange 7 in water.

Enhancing the photocatalytic activity of AgCrO with coupled carbon-based materials like activated carbon, graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes and carbon nitride has been investigated in removal of Acid Orange 7 from wastewater. Sono precipitated AgCrO-C composite based photocatalysts were characterized by XRD, BET, FESEM, FTIR and UV-vis DRS and the photocatalytic activity of theses samples was evaluated in terms of degradation amount of acid orange 7 under visible light irradiations. BET analysis showed that with addition of carbon based materials, the specific surface area of the AgCrO-C composite increased. XRD analysis indicated that the crystallinity of AgCrO peaks decreased after addition of all studied carbon-based materials and CN has lowered the crystallinity of AgCrO less than others. Higher crystallinity has the positive effect of higher photocatalytic activity because among above mentioned composites, AgCrO-CN photocatalyst exhibited higher photocatalytic activity and stability under visible light irradiations. DRS analysis confirmed good match of electronic structures of AgCrO and CN. On the other hand AgCrO and CN formed heterojunction which separates photo-generated electron-hole pairs effectively. Also evaluation of photocatalytic reaction in various operating parameters showed AgCrO-CN had the highest photocatalytic activity in neutral pH and 1g/L of catalyst loading.