In situ synthesis of silver-decorated defective graphitic carbon nitride for enhanced photocatalytic redox performance

Abstract

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is known to be a promising visible-light-responsive photocatalyst but suffers from limited visible-light response and fast charge recombination. This study provides a facile, in-situ citric acid/AgNO3-assisted strategy to synthesize ultrasmall silver-decorated carbon-deficient g-C3N4 (Ag/D-UCN). The Ag/D-UCN catalyst exhibits excellent performance in the photocatalytic oxidation of organic pollutants and the photocatalytic reduction for H2 evolution. The experimental results confirms that the synergistic effect of ultrasmall Ag and carbon vacancy not only enlarges the light harvesting capacity but also promotes fast charge separation within g-C3N4 and from g-C3N4 to Ag, which are critical for the excellent photocatalytic redox activity of Ag/D-UCN. Thus, this study provides a promising in-situ strategy for the synthesis of high-quality Ag and defects co-modified g-C3N4 for the degradation of organic pollutants and clean energy production.