Synthesis of mesoporous Ag/α-FeO/TiO heterostructures with enhanced and accelerated photo/-catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol.

4-Nitrophenol (4-NP) is reported to originate disadvantageous effects on the human body collected from industrial pollutants; therefore, the detoxification of 4-NP in aqueous contamination is strongly recommended. In this study, the heterojunction mesoporous α-FeO/TiO modulated with diverse Ag percentages has been constructed via a sol-gel route in the occurrence of a soft template P123. The formation of biphasic crystalline TiO anatase and brookite phases has been successfully achieved with the average 10 nm particle sizes. The photo/-catalytic reduction of 4-NP has been performed utilizing NaBH as a reducing agent with and without visible illumination. All Ag/FeO/TiO nanocomposites exhibited significantly higher photo/-catalytic reduction efficiency than pure FeO, TiO NPs, and FeO/TiO nanocomposite. 2.5% Ag/FeO/TiO nanocomposite was considered the highest and superior photocatalytic reduction efficiency, and it almost achieved 98% after 9 min. Interestingly, the photocatalytic reduction of 4-NP was accelerated 9 times higher than the catalytic reduction over 2.5% Ag/FeO/TiO; its rate constant value was 709 and 706 times larger than pure TiO and FeO NPs, respectively. The enhanced photocatalytic reduction ability of Ag/FeO/TiO nanocomposite might be referred to as significantly providing visible light absorption and a large surface area, and it can upgrade the effective separation and mobility of electron holes. The stability of the synthesized catalysts exhibited that the obtained catalysts can undergo a slight decrease in reduction efficiency after five successive cycles. This approach highlights a novel route for constructing ternary nanocomposite systems with high photo/-catalytic ability.