A chemical bath deposition route to facet-controlled Ag3PO4 thin films with improved visible light photocatalytic activity

• The crystal facet of Ag3PO4 films can be tuned by chemical bath deposition.
• The crystal shape of Ag3PO4 is tailorable from cube to rhombic dodecahedron.
• Facet-tuned Ag3PO4 film shows enhanced visible light photocatalyst activity.

A facile, economic, and reproducible chemical bath deposition (CBD) method is developed for the fabrication of facet-controlled Ag3PO4 thin films with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity. The fine-control of bath temperature, precursor, complexing agent, substrate, and solution pH is fairly crucial in preparing the facet-selective thin film of Ag3PO4 nanocrystal. The change of precursor from silver nitrate to silver acetate makes possible the tailoring of the crystal shape of Ag3PO4 from cube to rhombic dodecahedron and also the bandgap tuning of the deposited films. The control of [Ag+]/[phosphate] ratio enables to maximize the loading amount of Ag3PO4 crystals per the unit area of the deposited film. All the fabricated Ag3PO4 thin films show high photocatalytic activity for visible light-induced degradation of organic molecules, which can be optimized by tailoring the crystal shape of the deposited crystals. This CBD method is also useful in preparing the facet-controlled hybrid film of Ag3PO4–ZnO photocatalyst. The present study clearly demonstrates the usefulness of the present CBD method for fabricating facet-controlled thin films of metal oxosalt and its nanohybrid.

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