G-C3N4 nanosheets adhered with Ag3BiO3 and carbon dots with appreciably promoted photoactivity towards elimination of several contaminants

Abstract Herein, graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets (signified as CN-NS) were anchored with Ag3BiO3 and carbon dots (abbreviated as CDs) by hydrothermal procedure with appreciably promoted photoactivity towards elimination of several contaminants. The CN-NS/CDs/Ag3BiO3 (30%) system, as optimal photocatalyst, demonstrated extremely high elimination efficiency for several pollutants such as methylene blue (MB), malachite green (MG), Rhodamine B (RhB), and methyl orange (MO) under visible light, which is 55.5, 36.5, 39.2, and 32.1 folds premier than CN material, respectively. Besides, PL, EIS, and transient photocurrent response data corroborated that the CN-NS/CDs/Ag3BiO3 (30%) material has the highest charge carriers segregation efficiency compared with the pure and binary systems. Energy band structure analysis demonstrated that the improved performance of CN-NS/CDs/Ag3BiO3 photocatalyst is allocated to Z-scheme heterojunction. Scavenging tests demonstrated that h+, •OH, and •O2− are the crucial species in the RhB degradation. Enhancement of elimination ability can be allocated to more generation of the charge carries and improvement of the segregation rate of them promoted through the Z-scheme mechanism.