Journal Article

The hybridization of Ag2CO3 rods with g-C3N4 sheets with improved photocatalytic activity

Song, Xinjie, Cui, Yanwei, Huang, Jiarui, Wei, Xianwen, Wu, Konglin

2015

Overview

A series of graphitic carbon nitride/silver carbonate (g-C3N4/Ag2CO3) rod-like composites with different weight contents of g-C3N4 have been prepared by a facile precipitation method. The g-C3N4/Ag2CO3 rod-like composites exhibited higher photocatalytic activity than pure Ag2CO3 toward degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) and methylene blue (MB) under visible-light irradiation. The photocatalytic reaction follows a pseudo-first-order reaction and the rate constants for the degradation of RhB and MB by 3.5% g-C3N4/Ag2CO3 are about 2 times and 1.7 times that of pure Ag2CO3, respectively. A possible photocatalytic mechanism was proposed based on the photoluminescence (PL) spectra and a series of radical trapping experimental analyses. The remarkably improved photocatalytic performance should be ascribed to the heterostructure between Ag2CO3 and g-C3N4, which greatly promoted the photoinduced charge transfer and inhibited the recombination of electrons and holes.

• Publisher: Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Aqueous solutions / Carbon nitride / Catalytic activity / Charge transfer / Composite materials / Degradation / Graphene / Heterostructures / Hybridization / Light / Light irradiation / Methylene blue / Morphology / Nanocomposites / Photocatalysis / Photoluminescence / Pollutants / Rate constants / Rhodamine / Scanning electron microscopy / Spectrum analysis