Highly efficient and stable Ag/Ag3PO4 plasmonic photocatalyst in visible light

A highly efficient and stable photocatalyst Ag/Ag3PO4 was prepared by the ion-exchange process between AgNO3 and Na2HPO4 and subsequently light-induced reduction route. The diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) indicated Ag/Ag3PO4 had strong absorption in UV and visible-light regions. The composite showed excellent visible-light-driven photocatalytic performance. It can decompose organic dye within several minutes and still maintain a high level activity even though used five times. It is considered that this excellent performance results from the surface plasmon resonance of Ag nanoparticles and a large negative charge of PO43 − ions.

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► Ag/Ag3PO4 photocatalyst was synthesized by light-induced formation method.
► Content of Ag0 reaches to 5.25% (mol %) after 2 hour irradiation.
► MB decomposition rate over Ag/Ag3PO4 dozens of times quicker than over N-TiO2.
► It maintains a high level activity after recycling five times.