Inserting AgCl@rGO into graphene hydrogel 3D structure: synergy of adsorption and photocatalysis for efficient removal of bisphenol A

An AgCl@graphene (rGO) core-shell structure was fabricated and then loaded into reduced graphene oxide hydrogel (rGH) to form AgCl@rGO-rGH by the chemical reduction method. The AgCl@rGO core-shell structure inhibited the aggregation of the AgCl particles and promoted the rapid transfer and separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Moreover, the AgCl@rGO-rGH composite exhibited a high adsorption and photocatalytic degradation capacity for bisphenol A (BPA). Specifically, the degradation efficiency of BPA on AgCl@rGO-rGH-2 reached 93.7% under the synergy of adsorption and photocatalytic degradation, and the degradation efficiency of BPA reached 87.0% after five cycles of degradation, which demonstrated the great synergistic effect between graphene and AgCl. The degradation capabilities of AgCl@rGO-rGH were 6.4 and 2.8 times of pure AgCl and rGH on the synergistic degradation of BPA. In the continuous flow system, the degradation ratio of AgCl@rGO-rGH2 remained 100% within the first 4 h under the synergy conditions. When the reaction time reached 9 h, the synergistic degradation ratio of BPA remained about 75.2%. It showed that AgCl@rGO-rGH-2 still has good degradation activity and long life in the mobile phase system.