Nanofibers based quaternary CeO2/Co3O4/Ag/Ag3PO4 S-scheme heterojunction photocatalyst with enhanced degradation of organic dyes

Nanofibers-based materials are among the promising photocatalysts for degrading organic pollutants. In this work, CeO2/Co3O4 nanofibers, which absorb a wide spectrum of visible light, were prepared by electrospinning technique. Then, the quaternary CeO2/Co3O4/Ag/Ag3PO4 step-scheme composites were synthesized by precipitation route. Various characterizations like FE-SEM, EDS, DRS, XRD, XPS, PL and FT-IR were conducted to determine the morphology, structure and properties of samples. The photocatalytic efficiency of as-prepared composites were investigated by the degradation of MB under blue LED light irradiation. Quaternary CeO2/Co3O4/Ag/Ag3PO4 composites exhibit higher photocatalytic performance than CeO2 and CeO2/Co3O4. Particularly, this composite yielded 92.5% degradation of MB in 80 min, and the degradation rate of MB by the photocatalyst was almost 0.03 min(-1), which was 4.8 times faster than that over CeO2/Co3O4 NFs. The significant increase in the reaction rate of MB photo-degradation can be related to SPR effect, the inhibition of charge-carrier recombination and formation S-scheme system.

Automated summary

Nanofibers-based materials, particularly the CeO2/Co3O4/Ag/Ag3PO4 composites, showed promising photocatalytic performance in degrading organic pollutants under visible light. Various characterizations were conducted to determine the morphology, structure, and properties of the composites. The enhanced photocatalytic efficiency can be attributed to the SPR effect, inhibition of charge-carrier recombination, and formation of an S-scheme system.