Ag ₂ VO ₂ PO ₄ Nanorods: Synthesis, Characterization, Photoactivity and Antibacterial activity

Silver‐containing materials have been the source of attraction due to their excellent optical and photocatalytic properties. Silver vanadium phosphate, Ag 2 VO 2 PO 4 , (hereafter abbreviated as AVP) in nanorods form was synthesized by hydrothermal method at 220 °C for 24 h and characterized by PXRD, FT‐IR, 31 P MAS NMR, SEM‐EDS, TEM‐SAED, N 2 adsorption‐desorption, UV‐Vis DRS and XPS techniques. It was crystallized in the monoclinic crystal lattice with space group C2/m and the crystal structure consists of layers of edge‐sharing VO 6 octahedra and PO 4 tetrahedra. The Ag 2 VO 2 PO 4 nanorods have shown the photocatalytic property against the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) dye. The degradation of RhB by AVP after 180 min of visible light irradiation was 45 %. The photocatalytic activity of this material was explained by its visible light absorption, which makes it a promising photocatalyst for use in solar photocatalysis and with a good photocatalytic rate. A mechanism for photodegradation of RhB dye was proposed based on scavenger experiments. It was noticed that . OH radicals are actively participating in the degradation of RhB followed by holes while the role of O 2 .− radicals is negligible. Antibacterial activity of this material was studied over gram‐positive Staphylococcus aureus and gram‐negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria.