Modified Polyacrylonitrile Fiber Silver Complexes To Display Semiconducting Behavior: Synthesis, Characterization, and Photocatalytic Oxidative Capacity

To obtain a polymer silver complex photocatalyst withgood stabilityand semiconducting behavior, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers were amidoximatedand then reacted with Ag(I) ions for the preparation of amidoximatedPAN fiber Ag complexes (Ag-AO-PAN) in this present study. The effectof Ag(I) ion concentration, reaction temperature, and others on Agcontent of the resulting complex was examined. On the basis of severalcharacterizations, Ag-AO-PAN was employed as the semiconductor photocatalystfor the oxidative decomposition of Rhodamine B dye (RhB) to evaluateits photocatalytic oxidation capacity under LED visible irradiation.Additionally, the photocatalytic activity of Ag-AO-PAN was comparedwith that of a modified PAN fiber Fe complex (Fe-AO-PAN) or Ag3PO4 photocatalyst. The experimental results demonstratedthat the Ag content of Ag-AO-PAN could be enhanced by increasing Ag(I)ion concentration or coordination temperature. Ag-AO-PAN showed thecrystal structure feature and displayed n type semiconductingbehavior. The visible adsorption property of the complex was significantlyimproved through increasing its Ag content. Ag-AO-PAN could lead toa decomposition of RhB molecules in water without H2O2 under LED visible irradiation, which was found when it wasreplaced by Fe-AO-PAN under the same conditions. In addition, it exhibitedbetter photocatalytic oxidative capacity and anti-photocorrosion performancethan Ag3PO4 under similar conditions.