Preparation and characterization of an Ag3PO4/GaOOH composite with enhanced photocatalytic performance toward rhodamine B

Abstract

A highly efficient Ag₃PO₄/GaOOH composite was innovatively prepared and its photocatalytic performance was evaluated through degrading rhodamine B (RhB) under illumination, in this paper. Characterizations including XRD, SEM-EDS, TEM, FT-IR, XPS, UV-Vis DRS, PL and EPR were performed to analyze the properties of the Ag₃PO₄/GaOOH composite. The SEM-EDS results indicated that Ag₃PO₄ particles were dispersed on the surface of GaOOH sticks. The (210) plane of Ag₃PO₄ particles and the (200) plane of GaOOH sticks were simultaneously observed in the TEM results. UV-Vis DRS analysis indicated that the spectrum of the Ag₃PO₄/GaOOH composite showed a significant red shift compared to that of pure GaOOH. PL spectra also indicated that the construction of the Ag₃PO₄/GaOOH composite significantly declined the recombination rate of photogenerated electrons-hole pairs. The photocatalytic degradation experiments showed that the 30 wt% Ag₃PO₄/GaOOH composite demonstrated excellent performance under illumination. After a reaction time of 60 min, the decolorization rate of RhB was up to 97.83% using the 30 wt% Ag₃PO₄/GaOOH composite. Further studies confirmed that the 30 wt% Ag₃PO₄/GaOOH composite had good stability and the contribution of active species during degradation was of the order h⁺ > ˙O₂⁻ > ˙OH. The results of this study would provide a new perspective for improving the applications of wide band gap semiconductors, particularly for light-induced degradation.