Intercorrelated Ag3PO4 nanoparticles decorated with graphic carbon nitride: Enhanced stability and photocatalytic activities for water treatment

Abstract

The method of decorating Ag3PO4 nanoparticles with carbon nitride material (g-C3N4) is demonstrated as an efficient pathway to remarkably improve the stability and photocatalytic performance of Ag3PO4 nanoparticles which have been widely used in photocatalysis, but limited by the instability. The improved material herein results in the largely enhanced photocatalytic performance for water purification under visible light irradiation, which was nearly 7 times as high as that of pure Ag3PO4. Meanwhile, the as-obtained materials show the unique stable property, mainly contributed by the protection effect of decorated g-C3N4 sheet. Additionally, the radical trapping experiments revealed that the introduction of g-C3N4 transformed the photocatalytic mechanism to some degree, where O2− played a more important role. The tremendous enhancement in catalytic performance may be attributed to the larger surface area, controllable particle size and the synergistic effect between Ag3PO4 and g-C3N4, promoting the separation efficiency of the photogenerated electron-hole pairs. The decorating system can in principle be broadly put into use for unstable photocatalysts.