AgBr and g-C3N4 co-modified Ag2CO3 photocatalyst: A novel multi-heterostructured photocatalyst with enhanced photocatalytic activity

Novel and highly efficient visible-light-driven g-C3N4/Ag2CO3/AgBr multi-heterostructured photocatalysts are achieved from the surface modification of g-C3N4/Ag2CO3 with AgBr nanoparticles by a facile and efficient ion-exchange method. The as-prepared g-C3N4/Ag2CO3/AgBr photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scaning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectrometry (DRS). Compared with g-C3N4/Ag2CO3, g-C3N4/Ag2CO3/AgBr hybrids exhibit enhanced the degradation activity for typical RhB, MB, and MO dyes under visible light excitation (>420 nm). Photoluminescence (PL), photo-induced current and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results demonstrate the g-C3N4/Ag2CO3/AgBr heterojunctions can effectively suppress the recombination of the generated electron-hole pairs. The higher photocatalytical performance of g-C3N4/Ag2CO3/AgBr can be ascribed to the efficient separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs due to the formation of multi-heterojunctions, in which the Ag nanoparticles acted as the charge transmission bridge. In addition, the possible transferred and separated behavior of electron-hole pairs and photocatalytic mechanisms based on the experimental results are also proposed in detail. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.