MO degradation by Ag–Ag2O/g-C3N4 composites under visible-light irradation

The paper demonstrated the synthesis of Ag-Ag2O/g-C3N4 nanoparticles via a simple liquid phase synthesis path and a facile calcination method. The synthesized Ag-Ag2O/g-C3N4 composites were well characterized by various analytical techniques, such as X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, the UV-Vis diffuse-reflectance spectra and transient photocurrent. From the structure and surface characterization, it indicated that Ag-Ag2O/g-C3N4 composites were formed by an effective covering of g-C3N4 with Ag-Ag2O. The results revealed that the 50 wt% nanoparticle had a great effection on the degradation of the methyl orange (MO), which was almost 7.5 times as high as that of g-C3N4. Based on the experimental results, the possible photocatalytic mechanism with photogenerated holes as the main active species was presented.