Photocatalytic degradation mechanism of phenanthrene over visible light driven plasmonic Ag/Ag3PO4/g-C3N4 heterojunction nanocomposite

Yuxuan Dai; Yuting Wang; Gancheng Zuo; Jijie Kong; Yang Guo; Cheng Sun; Qiming Xian

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.133575

Photocatalytic degradation mechanism of phenanthrene over visible light driven plasmonic Ag/Ag₃PO₄/g-C₃N₄ heterojunction nanocomposite

Chemosphere. 2022 Apr:293:133575. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.133575. Epub 2022 Jan 13.

Authors

Yuxuan Dai¹, Yuting Wang¹, Gancheng Zuo², Jijie Kong², Yang Guo³, Cheng Sun⁴, Qiming Xian⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, PR China.
² State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, PR China; School of Environment, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, PR China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, PR China; Nanjing Institute of Environmental Science, Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, Nanjing, 210042, PR China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, PR China. Electronic address: envidean@nju.edu.cn.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, PR China. Electronic address: xianqm@nju.edu.cn.

PMID: 35033521
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.133575

Abstract

Visible light driven plasmonic Ag/Ag₃PO₄/g-C₃N₄ heterojunction nanocomposite with regular morphology was prepared via a modified facile method. The two-dimensional ultrathin g-C₃N₄ nanosheet is uniformly wrapped on the surface of Ag₃PO₄ nanopolyhedron. A charge transfer bridge was built between Ag₃PO₄ nanopolyhedron and g-C₃N₄ nanosheet due to the reduction of Ag nanoparticles. This structure can inhibit the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and promote the transfer of photogenerated carriers, so as to produce more active species for participating in the photocatalytic reaction. In addition, the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of appropriate Ag nanoparticles enhanced the absorption and utilization of visible light. Compared with Ag₃PO₄ and Ag/Ag₃PO₄, Ag/Ag₃PO₄/g-C₃N₄ showed higher photocatalytic activity. Under visible light irradiation, the degradation rate of phenanthrene (PHE) was 0.01756 min^-1, which was 3.14 times and 2.38 times that of Ag₃PO₄ and Ag/Ag₃PO₄, respectively. After four cycles of photocatalytic reaction, the Ag/Ag₃PO₄/g-C₃N₄ photocatalyst still maintained high photocatalytic activity. The active sites of PHE were predicted by Gaussian simulation calculation and combined with intermediate products identification of GC-MS, the possible degradation pathway of PHE was speculated. This research has reference significance for the construction of plasmonic heterojunction photocatalyst in the field of environmental pollution remediation.

Keywords: Ag/Ag(3)PO(4)/g-C(3)N(4) heterojunction Nanocomposite; Phenanthrene; Photocatalytic degradation; Photocatalytic mechanism; SPR.

MeSH terms

Catalysis
Light
Metal Nanoparticles* / chemistry
Nanocomposites* / chemistry
Phenanthrenes*
Silver / chemistry

Substances

Phenanthrenes
Silver