Russian Journal of Physical Chemistry A | 2021
Direct Z-Scheme Photocatalytic System: Ag2CO3/g-C3N4 Organic–Inorganic Hybrid with Superior Activity through Built-in Electric Field Transfer Mechanism
Abstract
Abstract Development of new type of photocatalysts have become more and more important due to the spread of organic pollutants into the biological system, finally harm to the body. Inorganic nanoparticles showing good degradation properties have attracted many interests in recent years. In this work, a novel Z‑scheme Ag 2 CO 3 nano-particle/g-C 3 N 4 nanosheet heterostructure was successfully designed and synthesized via a facile in-situ solvothermal process, where the Ag 2 CO 3 nanoparticle grew on the surfaces of tiny g‑C 3 N 4 nanosheets in a face-to-face way. Nano-sized Ag 2 CO 3 particles and g-C 3 N 4 nanosheets were also synthesized and presented here. The structure, element composition, morphology, surface feature and light response capacity of as-prepared samples were analyzed through various physicochemical technologies. The photocatalytic activity of the as-synthesized materials against methyl orange (MO) decomposition was studied under visible light condition. The structure-property interrelationship for photocatalytic pollutants removal of the samples was also investigated. The results showed that 87% of MO could be removed by Ag 2 CO 3 /g-C 3 N 4 composite within 1.0 h under visible light illumination and the dissolved oxygen is the main species to consume the photo-generated electrons, leads to the acceptable chemical stability of Ag 2 CO 3 nanoparticles. The improvement in activity of Ag 2 CO 3 /g-C 3 N 4 could be attributed to the heterojunction structure formed by Ag 2 CO 3 hybridization with g-C 3 N 4 , which favors electron-hole separation via the Z‑scheme photoinduced charge carrier transfer mechanism.