Facile and green synthesis of novel porous g-C3N4/Ag3PO4 composite with enhanced visible light photocatalysis

In this paper, novel Z-scheme porous graphitic C3N4 (Pg-C3N4)/Ag3PO4 composite was synthesized by a facile and green method at room temperature. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) were used to characterize the structural, crystal and optical properties of the as-prepared nanocomposites. Photocatalytic activity of catalysts is evaluated by degrading methylene blue (MB) under visible light irradiation. The results showed that photocatalytic activity of Pg-C3N4/Ag3PO4 was much higher than that of Pg-C3N4 and Ag3PO4. The kinetic constant Kapp of MB degradation over Pg-C3N4/Ag3PO4 was 1.45 and 9.6 times as high as that of Ag3PO4 and Pg-C3N4, respectively. Finally, Z-scheme photocatalytic mechanism is proposed.