Co₃O₄ nanoparticles decorated Ag₃PO₄ as heterostructure for improving solar-light-driven photocatalysis

As a common photocatalytic material, Ag₃PO₄ still faces the challenge including the fast recombination of photo-generated electron-hole (e^--h⁺) pairs. In this work, we prepared Co₃O₄/Ag₃PO₄ heterojunction with good optical properties by an in-situ precipitation method. Compared to pure Ag₃PO₄, the Co₃O₄/Ag₃PO₄ exhibited greatly improved photocatalytic activities for degradation methylene blue (MB) and bisphenol A (BPA) under the visible light irradiation. Here, the degradation rate of MB could reach up to 12% which is about 35% higher than that of pure Ag₃PO₄, after 18 min irradiation. The degradation rate of BPA could reach up to 33% which is about 45% higher than the pure Ag₃PO₄. This work may provide insight for finding a new Ag₃PO₄ photocatalyst for promoting the photocatalytic performance (paper)