Effect of annealing temperature and time on structure, morphology and visible-light photocatalytic activities Ag3PO4 microparticles

Ag3PO4 microparticles (MPs) were annealed in air at various temperatures (100-500 degrees C) and time (30-120 min). It is surprising that both the phase structure and photocatalytic (PC) activities didn't descend even if the powders samples were annealed at 400 degrees C for 30 min, which made it possible to obtain Ag3PO4 films similar to the common semiconductor photocatalysts, such as TiO2. However, the particle sizes of MPs were observed to get increased significantly, resulting in a lowering of the specific surface area and a change of color. By excluding a few common causes, the excellent PC activities of the sintered samples are speculated to the improved crystallized quality, which also makes it possible to construct the photoelectrodes based on Ag3PO4 films for water splitting or photoelectric conversion. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.