Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.58, No.31, 14161-14169, 2019
Fabrication of Nanosized Ag3PO4 and Self-Assembly on Cotton Fabrics to Enhance Visible Light Photocatalytic Activities
A facile route has been developed for the preparation of stable and recyclable Ag3PO4 nanoparticles to upgrade the photocatalytic capacity and practicality. Ag3PO4 nanoparticles are first in situ deposited on a negatively charged potassium alginate/CNT colloidal solution, and then Ag3PO4 CNT and TiO2 assemble alternately on cotton fabric with the attraction of positive and negative charges. Taking advantage of the excellent absorptive capacity and recyclable nature of cotton fabric, the Ag3PO4-CNT/TiO2 photocatalytic coating presents great photocatalytic performance and recyclability for both liquid rhodamine B and gas toluene decomposition. The 7 bilayer (BL) form is the best for RhB degradation with a minimum residual of 3.94% within 5 min under visible light, and the SBL form presents the highest toluene degradation rate (95.96%) within 60 min under simulated sunlight. Furthermore, the stability of Ag3PO4 has been greatly improved. The photocatalytic mechanism of this coating system is analyzed by ESR measurement. This work provides a nice strategy to realize the practical application of nanoscale powder photocatalysts in both liquid and gas pollutant removal.