In this study, Ag-Ag₂O/reduced TiO₂ (denoted as Ag-Ag₂O/r-TiO₂) nano-photocatalyst had been fabricated through one-step solution reduction strategy in the presence of potassium borohydride. Afterwards, physicochemical properties of the resulting samples were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM), N₂ adsorption/desorption isotherms, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS), electron spin resonance (ESR) and time-resolved surface photovoltage (TR-SPV) techniques. Results indicated that potassium borohydride treatment could simutaneously induce the generation of Ti³⁺ self-doping energy level between the forbidden band of TiO₂ and metallic Ag species existed in the forms of Ag⁰ and Ag₂O nanocrystalline, thereby resulting in the greatly enhanced visible light absorbance and photoinduced charge separation efficiency. In addition, the visible light driven (VLD) photocatalytic (PC) performance was evaluated through the degradation of diclofenac and generation of ·OH radicals. As-expected, Ag-Ag₂O/r-TiO₂ sample exhibited higher VLD PC performance and larger generation amount of ·OH radicals. Furthermore, the enhanced VLD PC mechanism was proposed and confirmed, which was mainly attributed to the synergistic effect originated from the localized SPR of Ag⁰ nanocrystalline and Ti³⁺ self-doping which responsible for the intense visible light absorbance, high photoinduced charge separation efficiency and VLD PC performance.

中文翻译：

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Ag-Ag2O /还原TiO2纳米光催化剂的制备及其增强的可见光驱动光催化降解双氯芬酸溶液的性能

本研究通过在硼氢化钾存在下通过一步溶液还原策略制备了Ag-Ag ₂ O /还原TiO ₂（称为Ag-Ag ₂ O / r-TiO ₂）纳米光催化剂。之后，通过扫描电子显微镜（SEM），N ₂吸附/解吸等温线，X射线衍射（XRD），X射线光电子能谱（XPS），紫外-可见漫反射光谱（UV）对所得样品的理化性质进行了研究。-DRS），电子自旋共振（ESR）和时间分辨表面光电压（TR-SPV）技术。结果表明，硼氢化钾处理可同时诱导Ti ³⁺的生成。TiO ₂禁带与金属Ag物种之间的自掺杂能级以Ag ⁰和Ag ₂ O纳米晶形式存在，从而大大提高了可见光吸收率和光诱导电荷分离效率。此外，通过双氯芬酸的降解和·OH自由基的产生来评估可见光驱动（VLD）光催化（PC）性能。如预期的，Ag-Ag ₂ O / r-TiO ₂样品表现出更高的VLD PC性能和更大的·OH自由基生成量。此外，提出并证实了增强的VLD PC机制，这主要归因于Ag ⁰的局部SPR产生的协同效应。纳米晶体和Ti ³⁺自掺杂，具有很强的可见光吸收率，高的光诱导电荷分离效率和VLD PC性能。