Origin of Activity and Stability Enhancement for Ag₃PO₄ Photocatalyst after Calcination.

ABSTRACT: Pristine Ag₃PO₄ microspheres were synthesized by a co-precipitation method, followed by being calcined at different temperatures to obtain a series of calcined Ag₃PO₄ photocatalysts. This work aims to investigate the origin of activity and stability enhancement for Ag₃PO₄ photocatalyst after calcination based on the systematical analyses of the structures, morphologies, chemical states of elements, oxygen defects, optical absorption properties, separation and transfer of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, and active species. The results indicate that oxygen vacancies (VO˙˙) are created and metallic silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) are formed by the reaction of partial Ag⁺ in Ag₃PO₄ semiconductor with the thermally excited electrons from Ag₃PO₄ and then deposited on the surface of Ag₃PO₄ micr

SUBMITTER: Dong P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5457017 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature