Photocatalytic degradation of bisphenol A and dye by graphene-oxide/Ag3PO4 composite under visible light irradiation

A facile, one-step synthesis of graphene-oxide (GO)/Ag₃PO₄ was prepared. The as-prepared samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The SEM image indicated that Ag₃PO₄ particles were mainly distributed on the surface of GO sheets uniformly. DRS analysis revealed that the samples had good visible light response. The photocatalytic activity of the composites was evaluated by the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) and Bisphenol A (BPA). The results indicated that the photocatalytic performance of GO/Ag₃PO₄ was greatly enhanced after introduction of GO. The photocatalytic degradation efficiency of colorless chemical pollutants (BPA) over GO/Ag₃PO₄ was higher than that of Ag₃PO₄, and the possible degradation path was proposed by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis. Moreover, the photocatalytic stability was discussed by XRD and FT-IR spectroscopy analysis. Based on the experimental results, a possible visible-light photocatalytic degradation mechanism was also discussed.