Facial construction of Pd/BiPO4 toward efficient photocatalytic oxidation of formaldehyde under UV light irradiation

In this paper, the facile hydrothermal technique was used to create a high-performance serial of Pd/BiPO4 photocatalysts, which were then used to degrade gaseous formaldehyde into CO2 and H2O in a photoreactor chamber without secondary contaminations under UV radiation. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), field -emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and photoluminescence spectra (PL) were used to characterize all the as-prepared Pd/BiPO4 samples. The photocatalytic performances of the as-prepared Pd/BiPO4 for the degradation of gaseous formaldehyde were investigated under UV irradiation. The experimental results manifested that Pd/BiPO4 exhibited higher photocatalytic activities, as compared to the pure BiPO4. Especially, 1% Pd/BiPO4 presented the highest photocatalytic performance for the degradation of formaldehyde, which improved the degradation efficiency up to 81% after 240 min under UV irradiation. Moreover, based on experimental results a possible photocatalytic mechanism was proposed. The predicted reaction mechanism was also verified with the density functional theory (DFT) calculations with very similar results. As a result, this work provides a useful model for designing efficient photocatalysts for the elimination of air pollution.

Automated summary

A series of high-performance Pd/BiPO4 photocatalysts were synthesized using a facile hydrothermal technique and used to degrade gaseous formaldehyde under UV radiation. The experimental results showed that Pd/BiPO4 exhibited higher photocatalytic activities, with 1% Pd/BiPO4 showing the best degradation performance.