Efficient photocatalytic desulfurization of thiophene under visible light irradiation over flower-like AgBiS2 photocatalyst

Here, we report the production of hierarchical flower-like AgBiS2 nanostructuresby an amino acid-modified polyol route. This work indicates that by changing thepolyol process conditions including kind of capping agent, reaction time and refluxtemperature, the sheet-like, cone-like, sphere-like and flower-like morphologies ofAgBiS2 micro/nanostructures can be prepared. The phase, elemental composition,morphology and optical characteristics of as-prepared AgBiS2 nanostructures wereanalyzed by UV–Vis, FESEM, XRD, and EDS techniques. After characterization ofthe products, the AgBiS2 nanostructures were employed as novel photocatalystsfor oxidative desulfurization of thiophene/n-octane solution as model fuel undervisible light illumination. Results demonstrate that hierarchical flower-like AgBiS2photocatalyst with desirable band gap energy (2.44 eV) has high photocatalyticdesulfurization performance of about 89% after 2 h of visible light irradiation.As well as, the effects of morphology, photocatalyst dosage and reusability ofthe AgBiS2 nanostructures on the photocatalytic performance were evaluated.The excellent photocatalytic activity of AgBiS2 photocatalyst can be attributedto the strong visible light absorption, high separation rate of electron–hole pairs,special hierarchical structures and suitable band gap energy. Moreover, a reliablephoto-oxidation desulfurization mechanism was discussed according to theactive species trapping experiments, which revealed the photo-generated h+ and•O2 − radicals were the main active species in the photocatalytic desulfurizationprocess.