《Novel Ag-bridged dual Z-scheme g-C3N4/BiOI/AgI plasmonic heterojunction: Exceptional photocatalytic activity towards tetracycline and the mechanism insight》
Website: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jes.2022.11.002
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Abstract：
Rational design and synthesis of highly efficiently and robust photocatalysts with positive exciton splitting and interfacial charge transfer for environmental application is critical. Herein, aiming at overcoming the common shortcomings of the traditional photocatalyst as examples by the weak photoresponsivity, rapid combination of photo-generated carriers and unstable structure, a novel Ag-bridged Z-scheme 3D/3D g-C3N4/BiOI plasmonic heterojunction was successfully synthesized via a facile method associated with self-assembly and photoreduction. Results indicated that the Ag nanoparticles and 3D BiOI microspheres decorated highly uniformly on the 3D porous g-C3N4 nanosheet, resulting in larger specific surface area and abundant reactive active sites. The optimized 3D porous Z-scheme g-C3N4/BiOI/Ag manifested exceptional photocatalytic degradation efficiency of tetracycline (TC) in water, with approximately 91.8% degradation efficiency within 165 min, outperforming majority of the reported g-C3N4-based photocatalysts, and it also exhibited good stability in terms of activity and structure. In-depth radical scavenging and EPR analysis confirmed the relative contribution of the scavengers. Mechanism analysis indicate that the improved photocatalytic performance and stability was ascribed to the highly ordered 3D porous framework, fast electron transfer of Z-scheme heterojunction, desirable photocatalytic performance of BiOI and synergistic effect of Ag plasmas. Therefore, the 3D porous Z-scheme g-C3N4/BiOI/Ag heterojunction had a good prospect for application in water remediation. We believe that our work would provide new insight and useful guidance for designing novel structural photocatalyst for environmental-related applications.
