Cyclized polyacrynitrile modified Ag3PO4 photocatalysts with enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible-light irradiation

An efficient visible-light-driven Ag3PO4/cyclized polyacrynitrile (CPAN) hybrid photocatalyst was prepared by a facile chemisorption method. The photocatalytic activity was measured by decomposition of an ordinary dye methyl orange (MO) in an aqueous solution under visible light irradiation. The microstucture of this hybrid photocatalyst was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The photo property was determined by UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and photoluminescence emission (PL) spectroscopy. Significantly, results revealed that the photocatalytic activity of the composites was much higher than that of pure Ag3PO4. The reaction rate constant of MO degradation over Ag3PO4/CPAN (300:1, 180 degrees C) hybrid photocatalyst is 3 times of that over pure Ag3PO4. It is proposed that both h(+) produced in the valence band of Ag3PO4 and O-center dot(2)- produced in the conduction band of CPAN play an important role in the photocatalytic degradation of MO by Ag3PO4/CPAN hybrid photocatalysts under visible light irradiation. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.