1. Reduced graphene oxide enwrapped pinecone-liked Ag3PO4/TiO2 composites with enhanced photocatalytic activity and stability under visible light.
- Author
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Ma, Ni, Qiu, Yiwei, Zhang, Yichao, Liu, Hanyang, Yang, Yana, Wang, Jingwei, Li, Xiaoyun, and Cui, Can
- Subjects
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GRAPHENE oxide , *PINE cones , *COMPOSITE materials , *PHOTOCATALYSIS , *CHEMICAL stability , *VISIBLE spectra - Abstract
Ag 3 PO 4 possesses high photocatalytic activity under visible light, but its application is limited by photogenerated charges recombination, photocorrosion as well as consumption of noble Ag. It is of great interesting to develop new Ag 3 PO 4 -based photocatalysts with high charges separation efficiency, good stability and low content of Ag. In this paper, we report a novel Ag 3 PO 4 /TiO 2 /reduced graphene oxide (Ag 3 PO 4 /TiO 2 /rGO) photocatalyst. It exhibits advantages on both the microstructure and the charges separation. The microstructure shows that TiO 2 spheres of hundreds of nanometers in size are decorated with dense nano-sized Ag 3 PO 4 to form pinecone-liked particles, which are enwrapped by rGO sheets. This novel structure effectively prevents aggregation of nano-sized Ag 3 PO 4 , which not only suppresses the charges recombination in Ag 3 PO 4 but also significantly reduces the content of Ag. Ag 3 PO 4 /TiO 2 /rGO also favors separation of photogenerated charges owing to its two pathways for charges transportation, i.e., the electrons in Ag 3 PO 4 can be transferred to rGO, while the holes in Ag 3 PO 4 can be transferred to TiO 2 . The dual-pathway for charges separation as well as the pinecone-liked Ag 3 PO 4 /TiO 2 microstructure ultimately leads to enhanced photocatalytic activity and stability of Ag 3 PO 4 /TiO 2 /rGO. The photocatalytic performance varies with different contents of Ag 3 PO 4 in the composites, because low content of Ag 3 PO 4 induces weak light absorption while excess Ag 3 PO 4 results in serious charges recombination due to the aggregation of Ag 3 PO 4 nanoparticles. In this work, Ag 3 PO 4 /TiO 2 /rGO with weight ratio of Ag 3 PO 4 against TiO 2 /rGO equals to 0.6 exhibits the highest photocatalytic activity. The percentage of Ag in this composite is around 29 wt%, much lower than 77 wt% in pure Ag 3 PO 4 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
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