Fabrication and photocatalytic properties of water-stable Ag/PW 12 /PVA nanocomposites

A kind of water-stable phosphotungstic acid/polyvinyl alcohol(PW 12 /PVA) fiber was prepared by thermal or chemical crosslinking treatments with the help of electrospinning, and silver nanoparticles(NPs) modified fibrous precursor was successfully obtained by photoreduced method. The nanocomposites were characterized by transformation infrared spectroscopy(FTIR), UV-Vis diffuse reflection spectroscopy(DRS), field environmental scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy(TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS). The results indicate that the sizes of silver NPs are about 20 or 40 nm on thermally or glutaraldehyde(GA) vapor crosslinked PW 12 /PVA fiber, respectively. As a photocatalyst, PW 12 /PVA fiber possesses high surface area to volume ratio, stable recyclability, and efficient transportation of electrons under visible light. The nanohybrids exhibit excellent photocatalytic activity for the degradation of Rhodamin B than PW 12 /PVA nanofiber.