Self-sacrificial synthesis of porous Ag3PO4 architectures with enhanced photocatalytic activity

•The porous Ag3PO4 architectures were synthesize by a facile self-sacrificial route.•The porous Ag3PO4 architectures exhibited enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity.•The porous Ag3PO4 architectures exhibited high stability.

The porous Ag3PO4 architectures (PAs) were synthesized by a facile self-sacrificial route through the simultaneous acid-etching and anion exchange reactions between Ag2CO3 and H3PO4 at room temperature. The resulting samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The Ag3PO4 PAs exhibited superior photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methyl orange (MO) under visible light irradiation, which were much higher than that of solid Ag3PO4 counterpart. This study could provide a general approach for the synthesis of other porous semiconductors from carbonate precursor.