(521do) Enhanced Photocatalytic Efficiency of Ag-Decorated g-C3N4 and Nife-LDH Heterostructure Under Visible Light Irradiation

The use of Photocatalysis with semiconductor materials has gained significant attention for its potential to address clean energy and environmental issues by utilizing renewable solar energy. The main challenge in practical use is the development of efficient photocatalyst that function well under solar radiation. An ideal semiconductor photocatalyst should be eco-friendly, inexpensive, stable, and have band edges that are suitable for the targeted reaction and correctly positioned to absorb visible light, thus utilizing the main component of the solar spectrum. This study reports that the novel binary Z-scheme g-C3N4@NiFe-LDH heterostructure photocatalyst were simply prepared by loading well-dispersed g-C3N4 nanosheets on the surface of NiFe-LDH precursor via the hydrothermal synthesis process. Then the prepared photocatalyst was decorated with Ag nanoparticles using photoreduction method. The morphologic structure, chemical composition, optical properties and surface area of the as-prepared nanocomposites were clearly characterized by using XRD, SEM, TEM, UV–Vis DRS, XPS and N2 adsorption–desorption techniques. In the photocatalytic degradation experiments, it can be seen that the optimal Ag decorated g-C3N4@NiFe-LDH nanocomposites can achieve the highest degradation efficiency (99%) for Methylene Blue within 120 min under visible light irradiation, and the corresponding pseudo-first-order. This enhanced photocatalytic efficiency was primarily attributed to the rapid charge transfer at the Ag/LDH/g-C3N4 interfaces and the surface Plasmon resonance of the Ag nanoparticles, which improves the separation efficiency of photogenerated charge carriers and enhances optical absorption. These findings are expected to provide new insights into the design and construction of efficient visible-light-driven photocatalyst for applications in solar energy conversion and environmental remediation.