Electrospun Carbon Nanofibers Decorated with Ag3PO4 Nanoparticles: Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalyst for the Photodegradation of Methylene Blue

Abstract

For the first time, heterostructures of electrospun carbon nanofibers decorated with Ag3PO4 nanoparticles (Ag3PO4/CNFs) were successfully fabricated by the combination of simple and versatile electrospinning technique followed by carbonization and incorporation of Ag3PO4 nanoparticles via colloidal and precipitation synthesis approaches. The as-fabricated heterostructures were characterized by FESEM with EDS, XRD, TEM with HRTEM, FTIR and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. Experimental results revealed that the heterostructure obtained by colloidal synthesis approach (Ag3PO4/CNFs-1) was decorated with small-sized (~20 nm) and uniformly distributed Ag3PO4 nanoparticles on the surface of CNFs without any evident agglomeration, while in the heterostructure obtained by the precipitation synthesis approach (Ag3PO4/CNFs-2), CNFs were decorated with agglomerated and bigger-sized Ag3PO4 nanoparticles. The visible-light-driven photocatalytic investigation signified that the Ag3PO4/CNFs-1 heterostructure can exhibit higher performance towards the photodegradation of MB dye solution compared to the Ag3PO4/CNFs-2 heterostructure, which could be attributed to the synergistic effect between the uniformity and small size of Ag3PO4 nanoparticles and CNFs that can serve as a conductivity network to prevent the recombination of charge carriers. Moreover, the mechanism of the photocatalytic activity as-prepared heterostructure is proposed.