Fabrication of Ag/SnS2/g-C3N4 Z-scheme-type heterojunction photocatalysts with enhanced LED light-driven photoactivity

In this paper, a Z-scheme-type Ag/SnS2/g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalyst with excellent photocatalytic per-formance was prepared through a facile approach. Silver nanoparticles were deposited in the SnS2/g-C3N4 binary composite by photoreduction with UV irradiation. The fabricated Ag/SnS2/g-C3N4 ternary photocatalyst were characterized by XRD, SEM, EDS mapping, UV-vis DRS, FTIR and PL. Their application towards photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under low-power visible light irradiation (50 W LED) was also investigated. The results delivered that the photocatalytic properties of Ag/SnS2/g-C3N4 composites were directly related to silver loading content. When the mass ratio of SnS2: g-C3N4 was solid to 5: 95 and 0.0022wt% of silver doping amount, the obtained ternary material exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity, which was 9.09 and 5.73 times more than that of single g-C3N4 and SnS2/g-C3N4, respectively. The improved photocatalytic activity can be ascribed to the increasing absorbance in the visible light region caused by Z-scheme-type heterojunction, localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) caused by the deposited silver, and the highly efficient separation of photoelectron-hole pairs in Ag/SnS2/g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalyst.

Automated summary

In this study, a Z-scheme Ag/SnS2/g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalyst with excellent photocatalytic performance was prepared. Silver nanoparticles were deposited in the SnS2/g-C3N4 composite through UV photoreduction. The photocatalytic properties of the fabricated material were characterized and its application in Rhodamine B degradation under low-power visible light irradiation was investigated. The results showed that the ternary material with a mass ratio of SnS2: g-C3N4 of 5:95 and a silver doping amount of 0.0022wt% exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity, being 9.09 and 5.73 times higher than that of single g-C3N4 and SnS2/g-C3N4, respectively. The improved photocatalytic activity was attributed to the Z-scheme heterojunction, localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) caused by deposited silver, and efficient separation of photoelectron-hole pairs.