Preparation and Characterization of Highly Efficient and Stable Visible‐Light‐Responsive Photocatalyst AgBr/Ag₃PO₄

Abstract

AgBr/Ag 3 PO 4 photocatalyst was synthesized using a facile coprecipitation method. The photocatalyst was characterized by X‐ray powder diffraction (XRD), UV‐Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer‐Emmett‐Teller (BET) surface areas, and photoluminescence (PL) technique. The activity of the photocatalyst was evaluated by the degradation of methyl orange (MO) and rhodamine B (RhB). The results showed that the prepared AgBr/Ag 3 PO 4 exhibited excellent performance and much higher photocatalytic activity than the single one under visible‐light irradiation. The optimum mole ratio of Br/P in AgBr/Ag 3 PO 4 samples is 0.3. The prepared AgBr/Ag 3 PO 4 photocatalyst was transformed to Ag/AgBr/Ag 3 PO 4 system with excellent property and good stability in the photocatalytic process. The possible mechanisms of the enhanced photocatalytic activity for the AgBr/Ag 3 PO 4 were also discussed in detail.