Construction of bifunctional materials with high adsorption and deep photodegradation of bisphenol A by In-MOF decorated with Ag/Ag3PO4

Refining the visible light absorption and optimizing the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs are pivotal in enhancing the photocatalytic activity of composites. A novel Z-scheme plasma photocatalyst, Ag/ Ag3PO4/In-MOF (A/AP/In), was developed in this study. Experimental results demonstrated that A/AP/In exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity for BPA among all samples tested, achieving complete degradation of 50 ppm BPA within 30 min, as well as its apparent degradation rate was about 11 times higher than that of pure Ag3PO4 and 4 times higher than that of pure In-MOF. The enhanced photocatalytic activity can be mainly attributed to the existence of Z-type heterojunctions and the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect induced by Ag nanoparticles, which facilitate efficient migration and separation of photogenerated carriers. Meanwhile, the incorporation of Ag nanoparticles enhances visible light absorption and protects Ag3PO4 from photocorrosion in the composites. Moreover, A/AP/In maintains the large specific surface area of In-MOF and provides abundant reactive active sites. In addition, the photocatalytic performance of A/AP/In was above 90 % after five consecutive cycles confirming its good stability. Overall, this study proposes a novel approach for constructing bifunctional composites with efficient adsorption/catalytic degradation.