Fabrication and photocatalytic activity enhanced mechanism of direct Z-scheme g-C3N4/Ag2WO4 photocatalyst

•g-C3N4 acted as a support for the in situ growth of β-Ag2WO4.•g-C3N4 nanosheets inhibited the phase transformation of β-Ag2WO4 to α-Ag2WO4.•g-C3N4/Ag2WO4 exhibited a superior photocatalytic activity.•A direct Z-scheme photocatalytic mechanism could explain activity enhancement.

Herein, a direct Z-scheme graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4)/silver tungstate (Ag2WO4) photocatalyst was prepared by a facile in situ precipitation method using g-C3N4 as a support and silver nitrate as a precursor. X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and elemental mapping demonstrated that β-Ag2WO4 nanoparticles were evenly distributed on the surface of g-C3N4 nanosheets, which acted as a support for the nucleation and growth of β-Ag2WO4 and inhibited the phase transformation of metastable β-Ag2WO4 to stable α-Ag2WO4. Photocatalytic experiments indicated that the g-C3N4/Ag2WO4 nanocomposite photocatalyst displayed a better photocatalytic activity than pure g-C3N4 and Ag2WO4 toward the degradation of methyl orange. The enhanced photocatalytic performance of g-C3N4/Ag2WO4 could be well explained by a direct Z-scheme photocatalytic mechanism. This mechanism was related to the efficient space separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and the great oxidation and reduction capabilities of the g-C3N4/Ag2WO4 system. This work provided new insights into the design and fabrication of g-C3N4-based direct Z-scheme photocatalysts.

Graphical abstractDownload high-res image (114KB)Download full-size image