Biomimetic synthesis of Ag 3 PO 4 -NPs/Cu-NWs with visible-light-enhanced photocatalytic activity for degradation of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin.

1D Ag3 PO4 -NPs/Cu-NWs have been constructed to enhance visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity via biomimetic synthesis. Cu nanowires (NWs) were synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method. During the process of biomimetic synthesis, the porous PTFE film, which can mimic the transport process of cell membranes, plays an important role in controlling the transport speed of silver ions (Ag+ ) to decrease the reaction speed. Thus inhibition of the replacement reaction of Ag+ /Cu and the uniform growth of Ag3 PO4 nanoparticles (NPs) with a diameter of about 10 nm on Cu-NWs can be realized simultaneously. The diameter of Ag3 PO4 -NPs/Cu-NW is about 70 nm. Owing to the high electron transport of single crystal Cu-NWs, the free electrons in Ag3 PO4 are transferred out to promote photogenerated electron-hole pair separation. The stability of Ag3 PO4 NPs of the Ag3 PO4 -NPs/Cu-NWs was improved and the photodecomposition no longer occurred. Meanwhile, the band-gap of Ag3 PO4 decreased to 2.07 eV after being coated on Cu-NWs and expanded the absorption scope of visible-light. In addition, the active species-trapping experiments indicated that the holes and ˙O2 - play important roles in the photocatalytic reactions. The novel Ag3 PO4 -NPs/Cu-NWs were used for the degradation of ciprofloxacin (CPFX) for the first time and showed high photocatalytic degradation performance. After visible-light irradiation for 15 min, the degradation rates of CPFX with pure Ag3 PO4 NPs and AC0.3 as catalysts were about 27% and 53%. In the end, the degradation efficiency of Ag3 PO4 -NPs/Cu-NWs was 6.07 times that of the pure Ag3 PO4 NPs.