Preparation and photo-catalytic activities of Ag/FeOOH/SBA-15 composite

•The SBA-15 was used as the carrier for the synthesis of FeOOH nano-material and Ag/FeOOH nano-material.•TEM was used to study the structure of the nano-material with the composite structure of goethite.•There was some coupling effect between FeOOH and Ag, which can improve the photo-catalytic activities of FeOOH.•Phenol was degraded to Aromatic maleic acid compounds and then to H2O, CO2. In this study, we prepared a new visible light induced photo-catalyst Ag/FeOOH/SBA-15 using a facile deposition–photo-reduction method. Transmission electron-microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and N2 adsorption–desorption isotherm techniques were used to study the morphology form, structure and the valence state of the nano-materials. According to UV–vis absorption spectra, Ag/α-FeOOH/SBA-15 had a better response to visible light than α-FeOOH/SBA-15. Phenol of 20mg/L was used as a representative organic pollutant to evaluate the photo-catalytic efficiency of Ag/α-FeOOH/SBA-15 and α-FeOOH/SBA-15 catalysts in visible light (λ>400nm), 93% and 78% of phenol degradations could be achieved over Ag/α-FeOOH/SBA-15 and FeOOH/SBA-15 catalysts with 5mmol/L H2O2 in 4h. Moreover, the mechanism suggested that the high photo-catalytic activity is due to the charge separation, the surface plasmon resonance of metallic Ag particles in the region of visible light and generation of hydroxyl radical. This work is of importance in theory research and practical application of complex nano-composite.