Fabrication of highly efficient heterostructured Ag-CeO₂/g-C₃N₄ hybrid photocatalyst with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity

On the basis of hydrothermal synthesis of Ag-CeO₂ microspheres, Ag-CeO₂/g-C₃N₄ composite photocatalyst with heterostructure was prepared by simple solvent evaporation of Ag-CeO₂ and g-C₃N₄. To characterize the composition, structure, morphology and light absorption properties of the as-prepared Ag-CeO₂/g-C₃N₄ composites, XRD, FTIR XPS, SEM, TEM, PL, BET and UV-vis DRS were used, respectively. The as-prepared photocatalyst was subjected to photocatalytic degradation of pollutants, and the prepared composite material has excellent photocatalytic activity for photodegradation of methylene blue (MB). The research shows that the photocatalytic properties of Ag-CeO₂/g-C₃N₄ composites were related to the mass ratio of Ag-CeO₂ microspheres and g-C₃N₄ nanosheets. When the ratio of Ag-CeO₂ microspheres: g-C₃N₄ is 1:5, the composites have the highest photocatalytic activity, which was 9.6 and 3.3 times that of single Ag-CeO₂ and g-C₃N₄, respectively. The improvement of photocatalytic activity is attributed to the heterostructure between the composite materials and the addition of noble metal silver, and the degradation of methylene blue by the visible light irradiation material is greatly improved. Finally, an attempt was made to analyze the principle of photocatalytic degradation of pollutants in prepared materials.