Fabrication of a Ag3PO4/Reduced graphene oxide/BiOBr ternary photocatalyst for enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity and stability

Abstract In this work, a novel visible-light-driven photocatalyst Ag3PO4/RGO/BiOBr was successfully prepared with hydrothermal and precipitation methods. The morphology, structure and photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared photocatalyst were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The catalytic properties of photocatalysts were analysed by UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (UV–Vis DRS). The degradation rate of methylene blue (MB) for the Ag3PO4/RGO/BiOBr composite (96.5%) was higher than that for BiOBr (60.25%), Ag3PO4 (68.27%) and Ag3PO4/BiOBr (84.96%) after visible light irradiation for 30 min. Moreover, a possible mechanism for the photocatalyst was proposed in this study, and the improvement of the photocatalytic performance was attributed to the effective separation and transfer of photostimulated electron-hole pairs. This catalytic mechanism is in agreement with photoluminescence spectra (PL), photoelectrochemical measurements and radical capture experiments. In general, the Ag3PO4/RGO/BiOBr photocatalyst has good application prospects for the degradation of dyes and environmental protection.