Enhanced the photocatalytic activity of B–C–N–TiO2 under visible light:Synergistic effect of element doping and Z-scheme interface heterojunction constructed with Ag nanoparticles

Abstract In order to enhance the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 under visible light, Ag nanoparticles were introduced into tridoped B–C–N–TiO2 (TT) catalyst by photoreduction deposition. Ag/B–C–N–TiO2 (ATT) catalysts with the functions of reducing band gap and carrier recombination were prepared. At the same time, the effect of the amount of Ag on the photocatalytic performance of ATT catalyst was investigated. Through XRD, XPS, PL and other characterization methods, the (211)/(101)/Ag interface heterojunction mechanism similar to the traditional Z-scheme heterojunction was proposed. The intervention of Ag nanoparticles changed the P–N interface heterojunction between (211)/(101) to the (211)/(101)/Ag Z-scheme interface heterojunction. The results show that ATT catalyst exhibits the highest photocatalytic activity when the molar amount of Ag is 0.005% with the MB degradation rate of the ATT catalyst (0.01707 min−1), which is 14.59 times of TiO2 (0.00117 min−1) and 2.02 times of TT (0.00847 min−1). In addition, the four cycles efficiencies of ATT for MB degradation were all above 94.00%.This study reveals the possibility of construction of Z-scheme heterojunctions between precious metal nanoparticles and different interfaces of TiO2, and provides a reference for the construction of Z-scheme interface heterojunctions.