In situ oxidation synthesis of visible-light-driven plasmonic photocatalyst Ag/AgCl/g-C3N4 and its activity

The Ag/AgCl/g-C3N4 composites were prepared by in situ oxidation process. During the process, the prefabricated Ag nanoparticles well dispersed on the surface of g-C3N4 employed as a template and oxidized by FeCl3 to form the Ag/AgCl core–shell structure. The resultant samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared (IR) spectroscopy and UV–vis diffuse-reflection spectra (DRS). As a kind of visible-light-driven plasmonic photocatalysts, the Ag/AgCl/g-C3N4 with the Ag/AgCl amount of 2.7 at% achieved the best photocatalytic activity for the methyl orange (MO) dye degradation. The photocatalytic degradation rate was 6.77 and 6.27 times as that of the g-C3N4 and Ag/g-C3N4 composites. The results indicated that the cooperative or synergistic effects between Ag/AgCl and g-C3N4 was existed which facilitated the separation of photo-induced electron–hole pairs and enhanced the photoactivity. Based on the results, a possible visible-light photocatalytic degradation mechanism was also discussed.