Visible light responsive porous Lanthanum-doped Ag3PO4 photocatalyst with high photocatalytic water oxidation activity

• La-doped Ag3PO4 was prepared by co-precipitation route with controlling the kinetic parameters.
• Porous surface structure and abundant surface defects were introduced by La doping in Ag3PO4.
• La-doped Ag3PO4 shows an improved visible light photocatalytic activity in O2 evolution.

This paper report a facile route of synthesizing Ag3PO4 crystal with smooth surface, and La-doped Ag3PO4 crystal with porous surface by accurately controlling the kinetic parameters during chemical precipitation process. As a result of surface modification induced by La doping, the La-doped Ag3PO4 crystal shows a higher photocatalytic activity than Ag3PO4 crystal in O2 evolution from water splitting. The improved photocatalytic activity of La-doped Ag3PO4 is attributed to the synergistic effects of porous surface structure, abundant surface defects and increased surface area. The result also shows that La doping concentration has a remarkable effect on the photocatalytic activity of Ag3PO4.

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