TY - JOUR A1 - Xu, Difa A1 - Cao, Shaowen A1 - Zhang, Jinfeng A1 - Cheng, Bei A1 - Yu, Jiaguo T1 - Effects of the preparation method on the structure and the visible-light photocatalytic activity of Ag2CrO4 JF - Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology PY - 2014/// VL - 5 SP - 658 EP - 666 SN - 2190-4286 DO - 10.3762/bjnano.5.77 PB - Beilstein-Institut JA - Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. UR - https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.5.77 KW - microemulsion method KW - nanoparticles KW - photocatalysis KW - photocatalytic activity KW - silver chromate KW - visible-light-driven N2 - Silver chromate (Ag2CrO4) photocatalysts are prepared by microemulsion, precipitation, and hydrothermal methods, in order to investigate the effect of preparation methods on the structure and the visible-light photocatalytic activity. It is found that the photocatalytic activity of the prepared Ag2CrO4was highly dependent on the preparation methods. The sample prepared by microemulsion method exhibits the highest photocatalytic efficiency on the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under visible-light irradiation. The enhanced photocatalytic activity could be ascribed to the smaller particle size, higher surface area, relatively stronger light absorption, and blue-shift absorption edge, which result in the adsorption of more MB molecules, a shorter diffusion process of more photogenerated excitons, and a stronger oxidation ability of the photogenerated holes. Considering the universalities of microemulsion, precipitation, and hydrothermal methods, this work may also provide a prototype for the comparative study of semiconductor based photocatalysis for water purification and environmental remediation. ER -