Synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic property of AgBr/BiPO4 heterojunction photocatalyst

A novel heterojunction AgBr/BiPO4 photocatalyst was synthesized with the hydrothermal method. The photocatalyst was characterized by X-Ray powder Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-ray Photoelectron Spectrscopy (XPS) and Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS). The XRD, SEM-EDS, TEM and XPS analyses indicated that the heterojunction structure formed during the process of hydrothermal treatment. The photocatalytic activity of the photocatalysts was evaluated by degradation of methylene blue dye (MB). The results indicated that the AgBr/BiPO4 heterojunction exhibited a much higher photocatalytic activity than the pure BiPO4. The mechanism of the enhancing AgBr/BiPO4 heterojunction's photocatalytic activity was discussed. It was also found that the photocatalytic degradation of MB over AgBr/BiPO4 heterojunction photocatalysts followed the pseudo-first-order reaction model.