Facile synthesis of Ag/AgCl/BiPO4 plasmonic photocatalyst with significantly enhanced visible photocatalytic activity and high stability

A novel composite Ag/AgCl/BiPO4 photocatalyst was successfully fabricated via a hydrothermal method combined with an ultrasonic-assisted precipitation–photoreduction technique. The phase structures, crystallinity, morphologies and optical properties of the as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS), N2 absorption–desorption isotherms and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The experimental results showed that the Ag/AgCl species could efficiently improve the separation efficiency of photo-generated electron–hole pairs, and then improve the photodegradation efficiency. The Ag/AgCl/BiPO4 (15.4%) composite shows the highest photocatalytic activity for the degradation of dyes under visible light irradiation. In addition, a possible photocatalytic mechanism for Ag/AgCl/BiPO4 was proposed by a trapping experiment, which can be ascribed to the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect of Ag nanoparticles.