Effcient Removal Phenol Red over Ternary Heterostructured Ag-Bi₂MoO₆/BiPO₄ Composite Photocatalyst

The fabrication of multicomponent composite systems may provide bene ts in terms of charge separation and the retardation of charge pair recombination. In this work, a ternary heterostructured Ag-Bi₂MoO₆/BiPO₄ composite was fabricated through a low-temperature solution-phase route for the rst time. The XRD, SEM, EDX and XPS results indicated the prepared sample is a three-phase composite of BiPO₄, Bi₂MoO₆, and Ag. Ag nanopar-ticles were photodeposited on the surface of Bi₂MoO₆/BiPO₄ nanosheets, which not only increase visible-light absorption via the surface plasmon resonance, but also serve as good electron acceptor for facilitating quick photoexcited electron transfer. The interface between Bi₂MoO₆ and BiPO₄ facilitates the migration of photoinduced electrons from Bi₂MoO₆ to BiPO₄, which is also conductive to reduce the recombination of electron-holes. Thus, the ternary heterostructured Ag-Bi₂MoO₆/BiPO₄ composite showed signi cant photocatalytic activity, higher than pure Bi₂MoO₆, BiPO₄, and Bi₂MoO₆/BiPO₄. Moreover, the possible photocatalytic mechanism of the Ag-Bi₂MoO₆/BiPO₄ heterostructure related to the band positions of the semiconductors was also discussed. In addition, the quenching effects of di erent scavengers revealed that the reactive ·OH and O₂^·- play a major role in the phenol red decolorization.