Accelerated Photochemical Degradation of Acetamipirid Insecticide Over the Ag/AgBr Nanospheres under Visible Light

During the last decades, removal of wastewaters using visible active photocatalytic systems has attracted great attention which led to development of various nanostructured photocatalysts toward purification. Among such contaminants, products including those used in agricultural applications like insecticides and pesticides are of great importance. In this project, the unique Ag/AgBr nanospheres were prepared by a facile single-step co-precipitation method in the presence of 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide ([BMIM]Br) ionic liquid (IL) and CTAB as the halide source and surfactant, respectively. The products were well characterized by X-ray diffraction powder (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS), and nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms (BET). The XRD pattern confirmed the presence of both AgO and AgBr crystalline phases in the structure well. In addition, the SEM micrographs indicated that the sample has the spherical morphology and the particles size is below 100 nm. According to the photocatalytic experiments, the product was very efficient for the degradation of acetamipirid insecticide solutions under visible light. Also, the results implied that the photoreaction obeyed first order kinetic and the rate constant was evaluated to be 0.145 h-1.