Facile fabrication of NiO/Ag3PO4 Z-scheme photocatalyst with enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity

Z-scheme photocatalyst can effectively promote the separation of photogenerated carriers, which can retain the strong redox potential and then significantly improve the photocatalytic activity. Herein, an active visible-light-driven NiO/Ag3PO4 Z-scheme photocatalysts were synthesized by a simple ion-exchange deposition method. Influences of different contents of NiO in NiO/Ag3PO4 on photocatalytic activity were investigated. 5% NiO/Ag3PO4 was demonstrated to be the highest photocatalytic activity, and the degradation efficiency of Rhodamine B (RhB) and methylene blue (MB) reached 97% and 92.6% within 21 min irradiated by the visible light, respectively. Under visible-light illumination, Ag nanoparticles formed on NiO/Ag3PO4 photocatalyst to obtain the Z-scheme Ag/NiO/Ag3PO4 photocatalytic system played an essential role in developing photocatalytic activity toward the degradation of the organic dye RhB and MB. Besides, influences of photocatalytic efficiency such as initial pH, temperature, visible light irradiation time, and photocatalyst dosage are investigated systemically. The mechanism of photocatalytic enhancement was studied by the active substance capture test, transient photocurrent response, EIS and XRD measurements. This work provides a new idea about Z-scheme Ag3PO4 based heterojunction photocatalytic system and benefits to synthesize more effective Z-scheme junction photocatalysts.