Preparation of Silver Phosphate/Graphitic Carbon Nitride via Microwave Irradiation for Photodegradation of Rhodamine B

Silver phosphate -AP; (Ag3PO4)/Graphitic carbon nitride -CN; (g-C3N4) catalysts are successfully synthesized via a facile solid-state microwave-assisted method under various loadings of g-C3N4 and then characterized by XRD, FTIR, FESEM and UV-Vis DRS analysis.The catalytic activity towards visible-light photodegradation of rhodamine B is of the following order: 10wt% CNAP (95%) > 5wt% CNAP (82%) > silver phosphate (68%) > 15wt% CNAP (54%) > Graphitic carbon nitride (50%).The highest activity of 10wt% CNAP is due to the synergistic impact of C and N in the C3N4 has contributed considerably to the highest number of defect sites.These features lowered the band gap energy which induces the charge carrier recombination.Consequently, photogenerated holes play a crucial role in the degradation as proved by a scavenger study.It is believed that the type-II heterojunction of CNAP has effectively achieved and demonstrates an excellent alternative to photocatalytic degradation to encounter most wastewater issues.