Rational design of Ag2CO3-loaded SGO heterostructure with enhanced photocatalytic abatement of organic pollutants under visible light irradiation

Abstract

The photocatalytic activity of semiconducting silver carbonate was restricted by the lower stability and fast recombination rate of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Sulfur-doped graphene oxide (SGO) is used as a cocatalyst for improving the photocatalytic activity of Ag2CO3 by reducing the recombination rate. A simple precipitation method was used for the modification of silver carbonate. The chemical, physical, optical, and electrochemical properties of the modified photocatalyst was characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, UV-vis DRS, XPS, CV, impedance, and amperometry. The fabricated SGO-Ag2CO3 composite was successfully degraded various organic pollutants such as methylene blue (MB), rhodamine B(RhB), methyl orange (MO), tartrazine, and thiram with augmented mineralization. The optimization of weight percentage of the developed binary composite with 0.5% SGO-Ag2CO3 showed enhanced photocatalytic degradation and followed pseudo-first-order kinetics with rate constant 0.126. More than 90% of degradation efficiency of the pollutants within a short time promises the binary heterostructure for future industrial applications. The excellent stability and reproducibility of the composite opened a new route in the treatment of wastewater.