Ag 3 PO 4 nanoparticles decorated on sheet-on-sheet structured g-C 3 N 4 /Znln 2 S 4 for enhanced photocatalytic activity

Abstract The increasing environmental deterioration poses a severe threat to human health and ecosystems, and the photocatalytic degradation of environmental pollutions has gained intensive interest in recent years. In this study, we prepared a novel ternary Ag 3 PO 4 /g-C 3 N 4 /Znln 2 S 4 (ACZ) photocatalyst by a hydrothermal method and deposition-precipitation technique. The ACZ composites exhibited much higher photocatalytic activities for the degradation of tetracycline (TC) than the sum of g-C 3 N 4 , Znln 2 S 4 , Ag 3 PO 4 /g-C 3 N 4 , Ag 3 PO 4 /Znln 2 S 4 or g-C 3 N 4 /Znln 2 S 4 under visible light irradiation (λ > 420 nm) in the photocatalytic tests. Especially, when the content of Ag 3 PO 4 reached 3 wt% (ACZ-3), the ACZ-3 displayed the highest photocatalytic activity, which can degrade 83% TC (20 mg/L) within 60 min. The improvement in photocatalytic performance of the ternary photocatalyst is mainly attributed to the extended absorption in the visible light region and the effective separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs between the Ag 3 PO 4 and g-C 3 N 4 /Znln 2 S 4 .