A facile and reproducible method for the synthesis of Ag 3 PO 4 /TiO 2 visible light photocatalyst has been developed to improve the photocatalytic activity and stability of Ag 3 PO 4 . The innovation of this method is to in situ deposit Ag 3 PO 4 nanoparticles onto the TiO 2 (P25) surface forming a heterostructure. The improved activity of the Ag 3 PO 4 /TiO 2 heterostructured photocatalyst for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation is attributed to the increased surface area and enhanced absorption of MB and RhB. Furthermore, depositing Ag 3 PO 4 onto the surface of TiO 2 facilitates electron-hole separation that leads to the elevated photocatalytic activity. The heterostructured Ag 3 PO 4 /TiO 2 photocatalyst significantly decreases the loading of noble metal Ag from 77 wt% to 47 wt%, thereby significantly reducing the cost for the practical application of Ag 3 PO 4 photocatalyst.

Transition metal doping has always suffered from the disadvantage of reduction of photocatalytic activity because the dopant ions can form a discrete level in the forbidden band of the photocatalyst resulting in low mobility of electrons and holes in the dopant level and thus lowered activity. However, in this study the photocatalytic activity of an efficient visible-light sensitive photocatalyst, BiVO4, for water oxidation or organic compound degradation was found to be remarkably enhanced by molybdenum doping. The role of molybdenum doping in enhancing the photocatalytic activity of BiVO4 was investigated and discussed based on the changes of the surface acidity of the photocatalyst.

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A facile NaBH4/tert-butylamine (TBA) treatment method for the effective removal of PVP from Pt alloy nanoparticles without affecting the particle morphology.