Anionic polyacrylamide-assisted construction of thin 2D-2D WO3/g-C3N4 Step-scheme heterojunction for enhanced tetracycline degradation under visible light irradiation

Thin 2D/2D WO3/g-C3N4 Step-scheme (S-scheme) heterojunction with carbon doping and bridge (C-W/N) was constructed with anionic polyacrylamide (APAM), in which APAM functioned as an assistant templet and a carbon source. APAM and WO3 were inserted into g-C3N4 nanosheet. The carbon, thin planar structure and WO3 with oxygen vacancies result in fast charge transfer, high quantum efficiency and strong driving force for photocatalytic reaction. Consequently, as-prepared C-W/N ternary composite photocatalyst exhibited significantly enhanced photocatalytic performance for tetracycline (TC) degradation under visible light compared to pure g-C3N4, WO3 and other binary composites. Moreover, the material showed high stability and reusability in cyclic TC degradation. The principal intermediate products over C-W/N photocatalyst were revealed by HPLC-MS analysis. Corresponding degradation pathway of TC was also presented in this work. According to the trapping experiments, analysis of electron spin resource (ESR) and band gap, possible charge transfer pathways of C-W/N are proposed and discussed in detail. Based on the results, carbon derived from APAM works not only as electron mediator but also as acceptor for photocatalytic degradation reaction. It is a promising way to further modulate heterojunction for varies applications.