Preparation and photocatalytic performance of nano-metal Pd-loaded α-Ag 3 VO 4

In this paper, using the hydrothermal method, we prepared α-Ag3VO4 loaded with nano-metal Pd. We performed X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, ultraviolet–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and other technical means to test and characterize the prepared Pd-loaded α-Ag3VO4. By degrading rhodamine B and methyl orange under visible light, we studied the effect of different Pd loadings on the photocatalytic performance of α-Ag3VO4. The results show that when the Pd loading is 3.5 wt%, the photocatalytic performance of α-Ag3VO4 increases the most. However, if the Pd loading continues to increase, the photocatalytic activity of α-Ag3VO4 will decrease. This is because the addition of an appropriate amount of precious metal Pd can accelerate the separation of electrons and holes in α-Ag3VO4, generating more active free radicals in the photocatalytic process. However, when the metal Pd content is too high, the metal Pd itself will become the active center of electron–hole recombination, leading to the decrease of α-Ag3VO4 photocatalytic activity.