Ag/AgCl coupled with WO3 films on glass slides and enhanced photocatalysis performance under visible light

Organic pollutants in water have become a serious environmental problem and WO3 is a photocatalytic material for this issue. In this work, there will be the first time that we try to use physical methods to prepare WO3 films and modify them by chemical methods. The characterization results show that Ag/AgCl/WO3 films have bigger surface areas and high absorption efficiency in the visible region. Due to the interface of heterojunction structure of Ag/AgCl and WO3, the transfer and separation efficiency of photogenerated charges are enhanced. WO3 films decorated with Ag/AgCl can greatly enhance photocatalytic efficiency under visible light. At the same time, the film catalysts were easy to recycle, and the tests show that the photocatalytic efficiency of the film is not significantly reduced after it has been reused for 3 times. In addition, the main active radicals in the photodegradation process are superoxide radicals (center dot O-2(-)) and holes (h(+)). Based on the test results, we proposed the possible photocatalytic mechanism.