Heterostructures of Ag₃PO₄/TiO₂ mesoporous spheres with highly efficient visible light photocatalytic activity

Heterostructured Ag3PO4/m-TiO2 (mesoporous sphere) visible-light photocatalyst has been synthesized via a facile method. The resultant composite consists of numerous Ag3PO4 nanoparticles with diameter less than 10nm, and these nanoparticles deposit onto the TiO2 nanoparticles surface forming a heterostructure. N2 adsorption-desorption measurements have suggested that the composite was porous with relative high surface area. Studies of the photocatalytic activity and stability of heterostructured Ag3PO4/m-TiO2 for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) have indicated that its visible light photocatalytic performance was improved compared with pure Ag3PO4 and Ag3PO4/m-TiO2, and exhibited excellent photocatalytic stability. The performance was improved attributing to three aspects: (1) the large specific surface area enhanced the adsorption of MB; (2) numerous pores enlarged the contact area between photocatalyst and MB; (3) the most importantly, depositing Ag3PO4 onto the surface of TiO2 facilitated the separation of electron and hole pairs, which also elevates the photocatalytic performance. Furthermore, the photocatalytic mechanism also has been discussed. Compare with Ag3PO4, the Ag weight percent of Ag3PO4/m-TiO2 decreases from 77% to 20.8%, significantly reducing the cost of photocatalyst.