Research Of Immobilization Of Silver Phosphate Photocatalyst And The Performance On Photocatalytic Degradation Of Organic From Water

Heterogeneous photocatalysis is considered a cost-effective method degradevarious hazardous organic contaminants in water because pollutants can be oxidizedquickly and non-selectively. Ag₃PO₄is a semiconductor used in photocatalyticapplications, which can use visible light to rapidly decompose organic contaminantsin aqueous solution.To enhance the photocatalytic performance of photocatalysts, micro-andnano-scale particles with large surface areas have been developed. A large surfacearea provides an increased proportion of active sites, which could improve thephotocatalytic performance. In addition, smaller particles could shorten the distancethat electrons and holes migrate from the bulk material to active sites. However,separation and recovery of micro-and nano-scale photocatalysts is very difficult andexpensive. To solve these problems, many researchers have immobilized catalysts onsupporting materials such as glass, aluminosilicate, silicone sealant, activated carbonand cotton. However, a considerable decrease in photocatalytic efficiency andselectivity is generally observed because catalyst immobilization decreases the activesurface area-to volume.Recently, magnetic core-shell photocatalysts composed of a magnetic core andphotocatalytic shell have attracted great interest. Composite magnetic photocatalystscan be readily separated under an applied magnetic field. However, most of thecore-shell photocatalysts reported to date are TiO2-based materials. The aim of thepresent research is to develop a novel magnetically recoverable core-shellphotocatalyst with a magnetite （Fe₃O₄） core and Ag₃PO₄/AgCl shell. The ability ofthe photocatalyst to photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue （MB） and itsrecyclability are investigated. The composite photocatalyst can be easily recovered bya magnet, and was reused five times without any appreciable reduction inphotocatalytic efficiency. This work presents a new method of producingmultifunctional composite photocatalytic nanosystems with both enhancedphotocatalytic activity for dye decomposition and magnetically separable recyclability.Combined EO and PEC showed7.4times higher degradation efficiencythan the sum of individual EO and PC.