Chiral induction enhanced photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange by Ag@Ag3PO4 and the reaction mechanism

A novel chiral Ag@Ag3PO4-NaDC composite was synthesized by chiral induction. SEM, XRD, CD spectrum, FTIR, UV-vis and XPS were used to study the physical and chemical properties of the materials, and the photocatalytic oxidation ability was evaluated with methyl orange as the target pollutant. The results show that the introduction of chirality can obviously promote the light absorption ability, broaden the band gap, enhance the oxidation ability, promote the separation of electrons and holes, greatly enhance the plasma resonance effect of silver nanoparticles, and promote the synergistic effect between silver nanoparticles and silver phosphate. Compared with Ag@Ag3PO4, the catalytic degradation ability of chiral Ag@Ag3PO4-NaDC is improved by more than 60%. Therefore, the chiral Ag@Ag3PO4-NaDC composite exhibits excellent photocatalytic performance. In the degradation of methyl orange by Ag@Ag3PO4-NaDC, a large amount of center dot O-2(-) and h(+) were formed on the surface, which was the main reason for the oxidation ability.