Photocatalytic Activity of Ag Nanoparticles Deposited on Thermoexfoliated g-C3N4

Abstract

The limited access to fresh water and the increased presence of emergent pollutants (EPs) in wastewater has increased the interest in developing strategies for wastewater remediation, including photocatalysis. Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is a 2D non-metal material with outstanding properties, such as a 2.7 eV bandgap and physicochemical stability, making it a promising photocatalyst. This work reports the process of obtaining high-surface-area (SA) g-C3N4 using the thermal-exfoliation process and the posterior effect of Ag-nanoparticle loading over the exfoliated g-C3N4 surface. The photocatalytic activity of samples was evaluated through methylene blue (MB) degradation under visible-light radiation and correlated to its physical properties obtained by XRD, TEM, BET, and UV–Vis analyses. Moreover, 74% MB degradation was achieved by exfoliated g-C3N4 compared to its bulk counterpart (55%) in 180 min. Moreover, better photocatalytic performances (94% MB remotion) were registered at low Ag loading, with 5 wt.% as the optimal value. Such an improvement is attributed to the synergetic effect produced by a higher SA and the role of Ag nanoparticles in preventing charge-recombination processes. Based on the results, this work provides a simple and efficient methodology to obtain Ag/g-C3N4 photocatalysts with enhanced photocatalytic performance that is adequate for water remediation under sunlight conditions.