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Ultrasonic-assisted decoration of Ag2WO4, AgI, and Ag nanoparticles over tubular g-C3N4: Plasmonic photocatalysts for impressive removal of tetracycline under visible light

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Abstract

The development of an efficient, eco-friendly, and low-cost photocatalyst is essential for addressing environmental and energy crises. In this regard, we report novel plasmonic photocatalysts through adorning tubular g-C3N4 with Ag2WO4, Ag, and AgI nanoparticles (TGCN/Ag/Ag2WO4/AgI) fabricated via a facile ultrasonic-irradiation procedure. The TGCN/Ag/Ag2WO4/AgI (20%) nanocomposite presented the excellent photocatalytic ability for removal of tetracycline hydrochloride under visible light, which was almost 45.6, 4.03, and 1.32 times more than GCN, TGCN, and TGCN/Ag/Ag2WO4 (20%) photocatalysts, respectively. Interestingly, the photocatalyst displayed impressive ability for the degradations of amoxicilline, rhodamine B, methyl orange, fuchsine, and methylene blue, which was 14.7, 52.2, 9.8, 13.2, and 7.46 times as much as pure GCN. The outcomes of DRS, PL, EIS, and photocurrent density analyses proved that the impressive activity could be related to the highly promoted harvesting of visible light, segregation of charge carriers, and improved charge migrations. In addition, trapping tests exhibited that •O2− and h+ were active species in the photocatalysis process.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, for any provided support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran

    Paria Hemmati-Eslamlu & Aziz Habibi-Yangjeh

  2. School of Optical and Electronic Information, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Optics Valley Laboratory, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Xuefei Xu & Chundong Wang

  3. Research Laboratory of Advanced Water and Wastewater Treatment Processes, Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

    Alireza Khataee

  4. Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Gebze Technical University, 41400, Gebze, Turkey

    Alireza Khataee

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  1. Paria Hemmati-Eslamlu
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  3. Xuefei Xu
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  4. Chundong Wang
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Contributions

PH-E: Validation; formal analysis; investigation; resources; writing-original draft. AH-Y: conceptualization; methodology; writing—review and editing; supervision; project administration. XX: formal analysis; writing-review and editing. CW: formal analysis; writing—review and editing. AK: formal analysis; review and editing.

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Correspondence to Aziz Habibi-Yangjeh or Chundong Wang.

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Hemmati-Eslamlu, P., Habibi-Yangjeh, A., Xu, X. et al. Ultrasonic-assisted decoration of Ag2WO4, AgI, and Ag nanoparticles over tubular g-C3N4: Plasmonic photocatalysts for impressive removal of tetracycline under visible light. Photochem Photobiol Sci 21, 1201–1215 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43630-022-00209-z

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