Sunlight-Assisted Degradation of Dye Pollutants in Ag₃PO₄ Suspension

Sunlight-induced photodegradation of rhodamine B over Ag₃PO₄ has been observed. Nanosized Ag₃PO₄ was synthesized by a facile ion-exchange route. X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectra were employed to investigate the phase structure, morphology and optical property of the Ag₃PO₄ product. Nearly 100% of rhodamine B was degraded after a very short irradiation time using simulated sunlight in Ag₃PO₄ suspension, and the total organic carbon measurement revealed that a high degree of mineralization was achieved in the present photocatalytic system. Ag₃PO₄ catalyst has an excellent photocatalytic performance due to the high separation efficiency of electron and hole pairs. In the neutral pH solution, Ag₃PO₄ catalyst exhibited the best photoactivity under simulated sunlight. The photoinduced holes were considered to be the dominant active species in the photodegradation process