Hydrothermal and Co-Precipitation Combined with Photo-Reduced Preparation of Ag/AgBr/MgBiO Composites for Visible Light Degradation Toward Organics.

This study developed a MgBiO-based photocatalyst via low-temperature hydrothermal synthesis. AgBr was co-precipitated onto MgBiO, and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were photo-reduced onto the surface. The photocatalytic performance, assessed by methylene blue (MB) degradation under white-light LED irradiation (2.5 W, power density = 0.38 W/cm), showed that Ag/AgBr/MgBiO achieved 98.6% degradation in 40 min, outperforming MgBiO (37.5%) and AgBr/MgBiO (85.5%). AgNPs boosted electron-hole separation via surface plasmon resonance, reducing recombination. A Z-scheme photocatalytic mechanism was suggested, where photogenerated carriers transferred across the p-n heterojunction between AgBr and MgBiO, producing reactive oxygen species like superoxide and hydroxyl radicals critical for dye degradation. Thus, the Ag/AgBr/MgBiO composites possessed excellent photocatalytic performance regarding dyestuff degradation (85.8-99.9% degradation within 40 min) under white-light LED irradiation.