Synthesis of graphene oxide/Ag3PO4 composite with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity

The nano-scale Ag3PO4 was successfully synthesized by the silver ammonia complexing precipitation method at room temperature. And the Graphene oxide (GO)/Ag3PO4 nanocomposites with different contents of GO were successfully synthesized using the electrostatic driving method. The as-prepared GO/Ag3PO4 nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV–Vis DRS), confirming that Ag3PO4 were highly dispersed to GO sheet. The photocatalytic properties of GO/Ag3PO4 were evaluated by the degradation of Methyl Orange (MO) under visible light irradiation and solar irradiation respectively. The results showed that the photocatalytic efficiencies of GO/Ag3PO4 nanocomposites had enhanced largely and the kinetics reaction models were followed first-order. Furthermore, 5% GO/Ag3PO4 exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity on degradation of MO under visible-light irradiation. The improved photocatalytic performances of the GO/Ag3PO4 nanocomposites mainly attributed to the introducing of GO, which benefit for electron transfer and inhibit the recombination of electron–hole pairs, promoting the practical application of Ag3PO4 in water purification.