Preparation and enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity of novel g-C3N4 nanosheets loaded with Ag2CO3 nanoparticles

As a potential visible-light photocatalyst, the photocatalytic performance of the bulk g-C3N4 synthesized by heating melamine (denote as g-C3N4-M) is limited due to its low specific surface area and the high recombination rate of the photo-induced electron–hole pair. In this paper, a novel g-C3N4-M nanosheet (g-C3N4-MN) obtained from the bulk g-C3N4-M through a thermal exploitation method is employed as an excellent substrate and different amounts of Ag2CO3 nanoparticles are loaded at room temperature. The phase and chemical structure, electronic and optical properties of the Ag2CO3/g-C3N4-MN heterostructures are well-characterized. The photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared Ag2CO3/g-C3N4-MN are evaluated by the degradation of methyl orange (MO) and rhodamine B (RhB) pollutants under visible light irradiation. More importantly, the Ag2CO3/g-C3N4-MN heterostructure has been proved to be an excellent photocatalytic system with an enhanced specific surface area and charge separation rate compared with those of the Ag2CO3/g-C3N4-M system.