Synthesis of Cu2(OH)PO4 superstructures with NIR-laser enhanced photocatalytic activity

The development of photocatalysts with wide UV-Vis-near-infrared (NIR) photoabsorption has received tremendous interest for utilizing sunlight efficiently. In this work, Cu-2(OH)PO4 superstructures are prepared by a simple hydrothermal route, and they have strong bandgap absorption in UV-Visible region and a distinctive plasmon resonance absorption in NIR region. Under the synergetic illumination of visible light and 980 nm laser (3.0 W cm(-2)), Cu-2(OH)PO4 superstructures can degrade 89.2% MB with the elevated temperature (similar to 51 degrees C) of solution, which is higher than that from visible light group (50.0%), laser group (16.4%), and visible-light/exterior-heating group (62.5%, same temperature at similar to 51.0 degrees C). These facts reveal that Cu-2(OH)PO(4 )superstructures exhibit NIR-laser enhanced photocatalytic activity, which not only comes from the photothermal effect-induced temperature elevation, but also mainly results from the increased production of photogenerated electron-hole pairs by NIR-laser. Therefore, Cu-2(OH)PO4 superstructures can act as efficient photocatalyst with NIR-laser enhanced photocatalytic activity.