The Starting Material Concentration Dependence of Ag3PO4 Synthesis for Rhodamine B Photodegradation under Visible Light Irradiation

Febiyanto Febiyanto (Department of Chemistry Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Universitas Jenderal Soedirman Jl. Dr. Soeparno No. 61 Karangwangkal Purwokerto Central Java Indonesia 53123)
Uyi Sulaeman (Department of Chemistry Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Universitas Jenderal Soedirman Jl. Dr. Soeparno No. 61 Karangwangkal Purwokerto Central Java Indonesia 53123)

VALENSI
Jurnal Kimia VALENSI Volume 6, No. 1, May 2020

Synthesis of Ag3PO4 photocatalyst under the varied concentrations of AgNO3 and Na2HPO4·12H2O as starting material has been successfully synthesized using the co-precipitation method. The concentration of AgNO3 is 0.1; 0.5; 1.0; and 2.0 M, whereas Na2HPO4·12H2O is 0.03; 0.17; 0.33; and 0.67 M, respectively. The co-precipitations were carried out under aqueous solution. As-synthesized photocatalysts were examined to degrade Rhodamine B (RhB) under blue light irradiation. The results showed that varying concentrations of starting materials affect the photocatalytic activities, the intensity ratio of [110]/[200] facet plane, and their bandgap energies of Ag3PO4 photocatalyst. The highest photocatalytic activity of the sample was obtained by synthesized using the 1.0 M of AgNO3 and 0.33 M of Na2HPO4·12H2O (AP-1.0). This is due to the high [110] facet plane and increased absorption along the visible region of AP-1.0 photocatalyst. Therefore, this result could be a consideration for the improvement of Ag3PO4 photocatalyst.