Controlled synthesis of silver phosphate crystals with high photocatalytic activity and bacteriostatic activity

Symmetrical silver phosphate (Ag3PO4) crystals with porous structure were grown by a facile controllable route in aqueous solution. The Ag3PO4 crystals have a cubic-type structure and the morphologies are distinctive under different conditions. The crystals had high purity, were well-crystallized and were free of secondary phases by powder X-ray diffraction, IR, Raman spectra, scan electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and selected area electron diffraction (SAED). It is interesting that the different crystal faces of the crystals have high physical–chemical–biological activity and large surface areas, so as to act as high activity micro-reactors (HAMs). The HAMs can effectively improve the photocatalytic activity and bacteriostatic activity of the Ag3PO4 crystals. Furthermore, we proposed a possible growth mechanism and detailed morphology transformation process of Ag3PO4 crystals with different properties.