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(NH3)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.