Aerosol self-assembly synthesis of g-C3N4/MXene/Ag3PO4 heterostructure for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride

• Published in: Colloids and surfaces. A, Physicochemical and engineering aspects Physicochemical and engineering aspects, 2022-09, Vol.648, p.129392, Article 129392
• Main Authors: Xu, Qingbo, Wang, Peng, Wang, Zongqian, Shen, Jiakun, Han, Xu, Zheng, Xianhong, Wei, Yuhui, Li, Changlong, Song, Kechen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aerosol self-assembly; g-C3N4/MXene/Ag3PO4 ternary nanocomposites; Photocatalytic degradation; S-scheme heterojunction; Tetracycline hydrochloride
• ISSN: 0927-7757; 1873-4359
• DOI: 10.1016/j.colsurfa.2022.129392

In this work, the S-scheme heterojunction of g-C3N4/MXene/Ag3PO4 (PCN/M/AP) was successfully constructed via an aerosol self-assembly procedure, in which MXene was employed as the electron mediator. The photocatalytic activity towards the degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) was found to increase with the mass ratios of MXene to g-C3N4 in the nanocomposites, as MXene dosage increased from 3 wt% to 7 wt%, degradation rates of TC also enhanced from 53.79% to 88.40% at 60 min. And the rate constant value of PCN/M/AP was approximately 4.3 higher than that of the pristine g-C3N4 under visible light illumination, due to the formed of MXene-mediated S-scheme heterojunctions that facilitated separate and transfer of the photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Moreover, the photocatalytic performance of PCN/M/AP toward TC was still maintained 83.80% after five successive recycles. And XRD, XPS and TEM clearly revealed excellent structure stability of PCN/M/AP during the photocatalytic process. The mechanism studies demonstrated that the ·O2- displayed a major role in TC degradation, and h+ and ·OH also affected the removal efficiency greatly. Therefore, this work provides a new insight into the construction of high-performance S-scheme photocatalytic system by using MXene as an electron mediator. [Display omitted]