Fabrication of Ag3PO4-PANI-GO composites with high visible light photocatalytic performance and stability

In this paper, a simple co-precipitation method was used to prepare Ag3PO4-PANI-GO photocatalyst. The polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers and Ag3PO4 nanoparticles were supported by graphene oxide sheets. The composite material exhibits better photocatalytic properties and stability for both cationic dye rhodamine B and anionic dye methyl orange under visible light irradiation than Ag3PO4-GO photocatalyst does. The significant enhancement in photoactivity can be attributed to the differences of valence band position between Ag3PO4 and PANI that causes a high separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Ideas on the design and fabrication of highly efficient and visible-light-driven novel photocatalysts are expected to be inspired by this work to solve energy and environmental problems. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.