The prominent photocatalytic activity with the charge transfer in the organic ligand for [Zn4O(BDC)3] MOF-5 decorated Ag3PO4 hybrids

Abstract The objective of the present study was to fabricate [Zn4O(BDC)3] (BDC = benzene-1,4-dicarboxylate) metal–organic framework 5 (MOF-5), Ag3PO4 decorated hybrids with a facile in situ precipitation method. All of the prepared MOF-5/Ag3PO4 hybrids exhibited significantly higher photocatalytic activity than pure Ag3PO4 and MOF-5. As suggested from the experimental results, the optimal MOF-5/Ag3PO4 hybrids at a 7% mass ratio of MOF-5 (MAP-7) exhibited the maximal catalytic activity with a 98.5% removal efficiency of RhB as irradiated by visible light for 40 min. In contrast, under the identical experimental conditions, the degradation rate of RhB by pure Ag3PO4 was only 63 %. For the transformation of photoinduced holes accelerated by the organic ligand in the specific-conjugated structure [Zn4O(BDC)3] MOF-5, as well as the formation of the heterojunction structure between different semiconductor materials of Ag3PO4 and MOF-5, the produced material had enhanced performance. Moreover, trapping experimental results verified that the generated superoxide radicals ( O2−) and photo-generated hole (h+) were critical to in the photodegrading process. Furthermore, a possible degradation mechanism with a heterostructure was developed.