Facile synthesis of novel NH2-MIL-53(Fe)/AgSCN heterojunction composites as a highly efficient photocatalyst for ciprofloxacin degradation and H2 production under visible-light irradiation

With the aim of solving the increasingly serious problem of environmental pollution and the energy crisis, in this work a novel NH2-MIL-53(Fe)/AgSCN (NMFA) composite photocatalyst was successfully prepared through a one-step chemical precipitation method. The prepared composites demonstrate an excellent photocatalytic performance for ciprofloxacin (CIP) and rhodamine B (RhB) degradation under visible-light irradiation. Within 60 min, the degradation rate for CIP and RhB reached 90% and 100%, respectively, which was 1.84/3.33 times and 1.79/2.04 times greater than that of the single NH2-MIL-53(Fe) and AgSCN samples. Furthermore, the H2 production rate of the NMFA-5 composite was 4742 μmol g−1 h−1, which was 5.25 and 17.37 times greater than that of the pure samples. Owing to the combination of NH2-MIL-53(Fe) and AgSCN, the separation and transmission efficiency of the photon-generated carriers in the composites was improved, which was demonstrated using optical characterization and a series of electrochemical characterization techniques. In addition, a possible mechanism for the excellent photocatalytic performance of the NMFA composites is discussed. The work in this paper may provide a technical reference for the application of silver modified metal organic frameworks (MOFs)-based composite photocatalysts for the treatment of environmental remediation.