Abstract
A precipitation method was used to prepare nanospheres of calcium hydroxide, whereas a photoassisted deposition method was used to dope silver onto the surface of calcium hydroxide nanospheres. Silver-doped calcium hydroxide and calcium hydroxide nanospheres were characterized by several techniques. Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye using visible light irradiation was used to measure the photocatalytic performance of calcium hydroxide and silver-doped calcium hydroxide nanospheres. Calcium hydroxide nanospheres absorb in the UV region; however, doping of silver onto the surface of calcium hydroxide nanospheres shifts their absorption to a longer wavelength (redshift). Additionally, by controlling the weight percentage of doped silver, the band gap of calcium hydroxide nanospheres can also be controlled. By doping 0.6 wt% of Ag, 100% of MB dye can be degraded within 30 min. In addition, 0.6 wt% Ag-doped calcium hydroxide nanospheres exhibit photocatalytic stability, showing no loss of activity after being reused five times.