Highly Efficient Visible-Light-Induced Photoactivity of Z-Scheme g-C₃N₄/Ag/MoS₂ Ternary Photocatalysts for Organic Pollutant Degradation and Production of Hydrogen

Abstract

A Z-scheme g-C3N4/Ag/MoS2 ternary plasmonic photocatalyst in a flowerlike architecture of diameter about 0.4–0.6 μm is successfully synthesized by a reliable and effective method. The as-synthesized g-C3N4/Ag/MoS2 photocatalyst showed excellent improvement for visible-light absorption and separation efficiency of photoinduced electron–hole pairs. The g-C3N4/Ag/MoS2 system exhibits optimum visible-light-induced photocatalytic activity in degrading Rhodamin B (RhB), which is 9.43-fold and 3.56-fold of Ag/MoS2 and g-C3N4/MoS2 systems, and 8.78-fold and 2.08-fold in the production of hydrogen (H2) out of water, respectively. The excellent photocatalytic activities are attributed to the synergetic effects of Ag, g-C3N4, and MoS2 nanophase structures in the g-C3N4/Ag/MoS2 composites, which result in a Z-scheme-mechanism-assisted fast separation and slow recombination of photoinduced electron–hole pairs and thereby higher photocatalytic activity.