Preparation of BiPO ₄ :Eu ³⁺ /SiO ₂ /AgBr Composites with Enhanced luminescence and Catalytic 4‐Nitrophenol Reduction

Abstract 4‐nitrophenol (4‐NP) is difficult to degrade, and easy to accumulate in organisms. The industrial emissions of 4‐NP cause serious damage to the environment and organisms. To solve above issue, a novel functional material of BiPO 4 : Eu 3+ composite decorated by SiO 2 and AgBr was successfully synthesized by a facile deposition precipitation method in this work. The structure, morphology and composition of obtained samples were characterized by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET), Photoluminescence Spectroscopy (PL) and Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. Furthermore, luminescence and catalytic properties of composites were investigated. The results show that the fluorescence intensities of the samples obviously enhance after SiO 2 modification. In addition, the optimized phosphor can be potentially used for fluorescent films and LEDs. Furthermore, the synthesized BPO: Eu 3+ /SiO 2 /AgBr (BiPO 4 : Eu 3+ /SiO 2 /AgBr) composites exhibited high catalytic performance in the reduction of 4‐nitrophenol (4‐NP) to 4‐aminophenol (4‐AP). Thus, this research can pave the way for the application of composite materials.