A novel composite of triangular silver nanoplates on BiVO4 for gaseous formaldehyde degradation

Abstract

In this work, a series of Ag/BiVO4 photocatalysts with various Ag nanostructures, namely spherical silver nanoparticles (SAgNPs) and triangular silver nanoplates (TAgNPts), were synthesized for degrading formaldehyde. The as-prepared photocatalysts were characterized through a variety of analytical techniques, such as X-ray diffraction, ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. From the experiment results, among the various types of photocatalysts, 0.003 wt% TAgNPts on BiVO4 induced the highest photocatalytic degradation rate (83.9%) for gaseous formaldehyde under visible light illumination for 5 h. The HCHO degradation rate on TAgNPt/BiVO4 was higher than those on BiVO4 (74.5%) and SAgNP/BiVO4 (81.0%). In addition, Ag/BiVO4 retained over 95% of its initial photocatalytic activity after five test cycles. Therefore, this work provides a promising approach for designing efficient photocatalysts for gaseous formaldehyde removal.