Facile deposition of Ag3PO4 nanoparticles on Bi2MoO6 nanoplates by microwave for highly efficient photocatalysis

Abstract

A simple microwave method has been successfully developed to effectively produce Ag₃PO₄/Bi₂MoO₆ nanocomposites. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have been employed to determine the phase and morphology of the as-produced products. The photocatalytic activities were tested through the rhodamine B (RhB) degradation under visiblelight radiation. The interaction between cubic Ag₃PO₄ nanoparticles and orthorhombic Bi₂MoO₆ nanoplates has been characterized by XRD and TEM. In this research, the as-produced heterostructure Ag₃PO₄/Bi₂MoO₆ nanocomposites display effective photogenerated charge transfer between Ag₃PO₄ and Bi₂MoO₆ which can improve charge separation. The 10.0 wt % Ag₃PO₄/Bi₂MoO₆ nanocomposites showed the highest photocatalytic performance as high as 4.36 times of the pure Bi₂MoO₆ sample.