Photocatalystic degradation of RhB over highly visible-light-active Ag3PO4-Bi2MoO6 heterojunction using H2O2 electron capturer

Ag3PO4-Bi2MoO6 heterojunctions with visible-light photocatalytic activity were successfully fabricated via a deposition-precipitation method. The investigation shows that Ag3PO4-Bi2MoO6 composites exhibit enhanced visible light harvesting ability and better degradation efficiency for RhB compared with Bi2MoO6 and Ag3PO4 under visible light irradiation (lambda > 420 nm). What's more, we found that the activity and the stability of Ag3PO4Bi2MoO6 heterojunction could be further improved by adding of H2O2 in the RhB reaction solution. The enhanced photocatalytic performance and structure stability are primarily attributed to the efficient charge carrier separation of the heterojunction formed by Ag3PO4 and Bi2MoO6, and the electron capturing property of H2O2 on the surface of Ag3PO4-Bi2MoO6 composites, leading to a highly efficient removal of RhB using the Ag3PO4Bi2MoO6-H2O2 system. In addition, the active species trapping experiments indicate that h(+) and center dot O-2(-) play important roles during the photocatalytic degradation process. This work suggests that the H2O2 assisted Ag3PO4Bi2MoO6 heterojunction system could be a potential promising photocatalyst for environmental remediation. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.