Novel Ag/p-AgBr/n-BiVO4 Plasmonic Heterojunction Photocatalyst: Study on the Excellent Photocatalytic Performance and Photocatalytic Mechanism

Abstract

A novel three-dimensional microspheres Ag/p-AgBr/n-BiVO4 plasmonic p–n heterojunction photocatalyst was successfully obtained for the first time; the photocatalytic performance of the as-prepared sample was systematically examined via the photocatalytic reduction of Cr6+ and oxidation of bisphenol S under visible-light irradiation. Among these samples, 3 mM-Ag/p-AgBr/n-BiVO4 exhibits the highest photocatalytic performances; the photocatalytic reduction and oxidation efficiency can be achieved at 76.9 and 98.8%, respectively. Enhancing photocatalytic performance is attributed to the increasing lifetime of the charge carrier confirmed by the results of time-resolved fluorescence spectra and photoelectrochemical measures. Moreover, based on the results of free radical scavenging activity test, and EPR experiments, we verify that h+ and •OH radicals are the main reactive species. Furthermore, the theoretical understanding of the underlying mechanism was also supported; we systematically calculated the energy ...