Abstract
For the first time, heterostructures of electrospun carbon nanofibers decorated with Ag3PO4 nanoparticles (Ag3PO4/CNFs) were successfully fabricated by the combination of simple and versatile electrospinning technique followed by carbonization and incorporation of Ag3PO4 nanoparticles via colloidal and precipitation synthesis approaches. The as-fabricated heterostructures were characterized by FESEM with EDS, XRD, TEM with HRTEM, FTIR and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. Experimental results revealed that the heterostructure obtained by colloidal synthesis approach (Ag3PO4/CNFs-1) was decorated with small-sized (~20 nm) and uniformly distributed Ag3PO4 nanoparticles on the surface of CNFs without any evident agglomeration, while in the heterostructure obtained by the precipitation synthesis approach (Ag3PO4/CNFs-2), CNFs were decorated with agglomerated and bigger-sized Ag3PO4 nanoparticles. The visible-light-driven photocatalytic investigation signified that the Ag3PO4/CNFs-1 heterostructure can exhibit higher performance towards the photodegradation of MB dye solution compared to the Ag3PO4/CNFs-2 heterostructure, which could be attributed to the synergistic effect between the uniformity and small size of Ag3PO4 nanoparticles and CNFs that can serve as a conductivity network to prevent the recombination of charge carriers. Moreover, the mechanism of the photocatalytic activity as-prepared heterostructure is proposed.
Highlights
Photocatalysis, a “green technique”, has been accepted as a potential remedy for the removal of organic pollutants from wastewater [1]
The experimental results showed that the Ag3PO4/carbon nanofibers (CNFs) heterostructure obtained by the colloidal synthesis approach exhibited higher photocatalytic activity in the visible light region compared to the heterostructure obtained by the precipitation synthesis approach
FESEM and TEM analyses revealed the uniform distribution of small crystalline Ag3PO4 nanoparticles on the surface of CNFs in the Ag3PO4/CNFs heterostructure obtained by the colloidal synthesis approach (Ag3PO4/CNFs-1)
Summary
Photocatalysis, a “green technique”, has been accepted as a potential remedy for the removal of organic pollutants from wastewater [1]. The process of photocorrosion is the insurmountable problem that mostly occurs in silver-based catalysts [15,16] In this connection, various attempts have been made for designing and developing a Ag3PO4-based photocatalyst with a sufficient charge separation ability and high photocatalytic stability in the visible light region either by doping SO4− ions [17] and coupling with other semiconductor/s [18,19,20] or by fabricating composites with graphene [21,22,23], carbon nanotubes [24,25], and non-metallic adsorbent [26]. We present a study on the effect of solution concentrations on the morphology of nanostructures (nanoagglomerates or nanoparticles) as well as their size
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