A green strategy to synthesize Ag/Ag3PO4/chitosan composite photocatalysts and their photocatalytic degradation performance under visible-light irradiation

Abstract

In this work, a plasmonic Ag/Ag3PO4/Chitosan composite photocatalyst was prepared by a low-temperature strategy. Environmentally friendly chitosan plays triple vital roles in this composite. First, it was devoted to in situ reduce metallic silver from silver ions of Ag3PO4. Also, as a carrier of Ag/Ag3PO4 nanoparticles, chitosan can effectively prevent aggregation. Furthermore, benefiting from the settlement of hydrophilic chitosan, the prepared composite could be easily separated and recovered from the solution system. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, UV–visible diffused reflectance spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were employed to characterize the properties of materials. The results of photo-decomposition testing showed that the Ag/Ag3PO4/Chitosan composite possessed a good activity for the decomposition of Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light.

Keywords

• Photocatalyst
• Ag3PO4
• Chitosan
• In situ reduction