In-situ oxidation selective deposition of tetrahedral Ag3PO4{111} on monoclinic BiVO4{040} with highly efficient visible light-driven photocatalysis and long recycling

Abstract

Photocatalytic technology utilizing solar energy to eliminate organic pollutants is considered to be a promising and sustainable method. Adopting light-driven and in-situ oxidation methods, tetrahedral Ag3PO4{111} (t-Ag3PO4) was selectively grown on monoclinic BiVO4{040} (m-BiVO4), and then m-BiVO4@t-Ag3PO4 with excellent visible light-driven photocatalytic properties and long recycling was obtained. When the catalyst dosage is 0.50 g/L, the m-BiVO4@t-Ag3PO4 heterojunction photocatalyst could remove 99.9 % of rhodamine B within 30 min under visible light irradiation, and the degradation efficiency after 11 cycles remains 97.2 %. The morphology details and photocatalytic properties were confirmed by SEM, TEM, DSR, PL, PC and EIS. Active species capturing experiments and electron spin resonce measurements show that the superoxide radical (·O2-) and hydroxyl radical (·OH) are the main active species during the photocatalysis process. This work provides a promising method for constructing heterojunction photocatalysts with controllable morphology and visible light persistent catalysis. m-BiVO4@t-Ag3PO4 heterojunction photocatalyst has the advantage of price in the market and good features for application in organic wastewater treatment.