Influence of annealing temperature on visible-light photocatalytic activities of Ag₃PO₄ particulates synthesized using CH₃COOAg as a precursor

Abstract

Ag₃PO₄ microparticles (MPs) were prepared through a facile chemical precipitation route and using silver acetate (AgAc) as metal salt. The effect of annealing temperature (T_a) and time (τ_a) on the actual photocatalytic (PC) activity of Ag₃PO₄ MPs is investigated. The optimal annealing parameters are T_a of 400 °C and τ_a of 90 min. The enhanced PC activity by annealing at 400 °C is ascribed to the increase of electron mobility. Besides, an Ag₃PO₄ photoelectrode was fabricated through a drop-coating deposition route, which demonstrates a photocurrent density of 80 μA/cm² and acceptable stability. The n-type conduction behavior of Ag₃PO₄ is verified by a Mott-Schottky (M-S) plot.

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