Synthesis of photoactive AgCl/SBA-15 by conversion of silver nanoparticles into stable AgCl nanoparticles

In this work the results of synthesis the ordered mesoporous silica (SBA-15) in the presence of stable silver nanoparticles were presented. It has been proven that the proposed method leads to the synthesis of SBA-15 nanocomposite containing silver chloride nanoparticles, formed by the transformation of silver nanoparticles in the acidic conditions. Proposed one-pot procedure is simple and the one requirement is to prepare a stable solution of silver nanoparticles. In this work, silver nanoparticles were obtained during chemical reduction of [Ag(NH ₃ ) ₂ ] ⁺ ions by formaldehyde. Silver nanoparticles solution can be used as a silver chloride source due to the application of the same polymer as a stabilizer of nanocrystals and structure directing agent of SBA-15. The final AgCl/SBA-15 materials show excellent structural ordering characteristic for this type of materials confirmed by diffraction measurements in range of small angles 2θ, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and nitrogen adsorption/desorption measurements. AgCl nanoparticles were identified by diffraction measurements as chlorargyrite phase. The presence of silver nanoparticles in initial solution and their absence after synthesis were confirmed by UV-vis measurements. The photoactivity of obtained AgCl/SBA-15 composite was tested in reaction of organic impurities photodegradation. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.