Synergistic effects of Ag-doped and morphology regulation of graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets for enhanced photocatalytic performance

Abstract

In this study, a simple protocol for synthesizing silver doped and morphological regulation to improve the photocatalytic performance of g-C3N4 was reported. The as-synthesized single atom dispersed Ag doped graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets (Ag-CNNS) showed excellent performance for the degradation of 2-Mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT) and Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation, mainly attributing to the synergistic effect of Ag doping and porous carbon nitride nanosheets (CNNS). On one hand, Ag doping promoted the capture and transfer of photogenerated electrons in g-C3N4. On the other hand, the presence of crimped nanosheets enabled g-C3N4 to have a larger specific surface area and shorten the charge diffusion distance from bulk to surface. Moreover, the increased photocurrent response proved that carriers had higher transport efficiency and interfacial catalytic reactivity. Cycle experiments confirmed that the 1% Ag-CNNS sample has good photocatalytic stability and reusability. Possible photocatalytic mechanism was proposed basing quenching experiment.