Effect of annealing temperature and time on structure, morphology and visible-light photocatalytic activities Ag3PO4 microparticles

• Ag3PO4 microparticles were sintered in air at various temperatures from 100 to 500 °C.
• Sintering leaded to the aggregation of Ag3PO4 microparticles, while it didn’t descend the photocatalytic activity significantly.
• The best photocatalytic activity appeared in the samples which underwent 400 °C sintering for 30 min.
• The enhanced photocatalytic activity of the 400 °C sintered samples was attributed to the enhanced carrier transport and the improved crystallized quality.

Ag3PO4 microparticles (MPs) were annealed in air at various temperatures (100–500 °C) and time (30–120 min). It is surprising that both the phase structure and photocatalytic (PC) activities didn’t descend even if the powders samples were annealed at 400 °C for 30 min, which made it possible to obtain Ag3PO4 films similar to the common semiconductor photocatalysts, such as TiO2. However, the particle sizes of MPs were observed to get increased significantly, resulting in a lowering of the specific surface area and a change of color. By excluding a few common causes, the excellent PC activities of the sintered samples are speculated to the improved crystallized quality, which also makes it possible to construct the photoelectrodes based on Ag3PO4 films for water splitting or photoelectric conversion.

Photocatalytic activities (a) and fitting curves (b) and recyclability (c) of Ag3PO4 MPs annealed at various temperature (RT-500 °C) under a visible-light irradiation.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide