The Starting Material Concentration Dependence of Ag3PO4 Synthesis for Rhodamine B Photodegradation under Visible Light Irradiation

Abstract

Synthesis of Ag3PO4 photocatalyst under the varied concentrations of AgNO3 and Na2HPO4·12H2O as starting material has been successfully synthesized using the co-precipitation method. The concentration of AgNO3 is 0.1; 0.5; 1.0; and 2.0 M, whereas Na2HPO4·12H2O is 0.03; 0.17; 0.33; and 0.67 M, respectively. The co-precipitations were carried out under aqueous solution. As-synthesized photocatalysts were examined to degrade Rhodamine B (RhB) under blue light irradiation. The results showed that varying concentrations of starting materials affect the photocatalytic activities, the intensity ratio of [110]/[200] facet plane, and their bandgap energies of Ag3PO4 photocatalyst. The highest photocatalytic activity of the sample was obtained by synthesized using the 1.0 M of AgNO3 and 0.33 M of Na2HPO4·12H2O (AP-1.0). This is due to the high [110] facet plane and increased absorption along the visible region of AP-1.0 photocatalyst. Therefore, this result could be a consideration for the improvement of Ag3PO4 photocatalyst.

Tuning the particle size, physical properties, and photocatalytic activity of Ag3PO4 materials by changing the Ag+/ PO43− ratio

“…The results show a = b = c ∼ 5.989 Å and D XRD ∼ 44 nm for the Ag/P 3:1 sample, which are relatively consistent with previous studies. [4,9,12] decreases. This leads to a slight decrease in lattice parameters, as shown in Table 1.…”

“…[1,2] As the formation of electron/hole pairs on the surface of APO particles plays an important role in the photocatalytic performance, many studies have been carried out with the aim to control the particle size or particle morphology to increase the specific surface area. [3][4][5][6] The studies showed that synthesis parameters such as the precipitating agents, [7,8] the ratios of the starting materials, [9,10] the concentration of the reaction catalysts, [5,11] the fabrication time, [3,4,12] and pH conditions [13] greatly influence the size and morphology of the particles.…”

“…This has remained a challenge for researchers so far. Therefore, besides finding solutions to increase specific surface area, researchers also focus on enhancing the structural stability of the materials by adjusting the ratio of Ag + and PO 3− 4 [9,16,17] to find the most stable structure. In addition, increasing the lifetime of the electron/hole pair to increase the photocatalytic efficiency has always been of interest to research through the creation of a heterojunction between APO and other semiconductors [15,[18][19][20][21] as well as doping of APO with suitable ions.…”

“…The results showed that Ag 3 PO 3 prepared from the 1.0 M AgNO 3 and 0.33 M Na 2 HPO 4 • 12H 2 O 4 solutions exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity. [9] The authors believed that the reason for this was due to the different concentrations in the reaction solution affecting the nucleation and crystal growth during the sample preparation. Again using AgNO 3 and Na 2 HPO 4 , with no change in mass and molar ratio in different samples but with varying concentrations of ammonia added, Febiyanto [17] found that a concentration of 0.05 M ammonia was suitable for the synthesis of Ag 3 PO 4 with the highest photocatalytic activity; this was increased 4.13 times compared to Ag 3 PO 4 prepared without ammonia.…”