P-n heterojuction in organic (polyaniline)-inorganic (Ag2CO3) polymer-based heterojuction photocatalyst

Abstract

Polyaniline (PANI), a conjugated polymer, was used as a support to produce heterojunctions with Ag2CO3. The synthesized Ag2CO3-PANI composite with simple precipitation method, was characterized by UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV–Vis DRS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The optimum photocatalytic activity of Ag2CO3-PANI at a weight content of 50% PANI for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) was almost 86% that is much higher than the pure Ag2CO3 and PANI. The high visible light activity was mainly attributed to synergistic effects including the strong visible light absorption, the strong adsorption of MB upon the surface of PANI, high charge transfer and separation efficiency. to investigate stability, four cycle experiments on composite indicated the high photostability. Finally, a probable photocatalytic mechanism of charge transfer was proposed for the enhanced photocatalytic performance.