Synthesis of Ag₃PO₄ nanospheres for significant photocatalytic activity under direct sunlight irradiation

ABSTRACT

Ag₃PO₄ nanospheres were synthesized by a simple method. The as-prepared nanomaterials were characterized by a variety of techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelec-tron spectroscopy (XPS), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL). Ag₃PO₄ catalyst has an excellent photocatalytic performance under sunlight irradiation due to the high separation efficiency of electron and hole pairs. Significantly, the stability and recycling of the photocatalyst were also investigated. This study may provide a new insight into the design and preparation of visible-light photocatalytic materials.

KEYWORDS:

• Ag₃PO₄
• nanospheres
• photocatalysis
• degradation
• dyes

Funding

The work is supported by National Science Foundation of China (No. NSFC51303131) and Project supported by Qingdao postdoctoral staff (No. 2016250).