Novel ternary component Ag-SrTa2O6/g-C3N4 photocatalyst: Synthesis, optical properties and visible light photocatalytic activity

In this work, we report on the synthesis of a novel ternary component Ag-SrTa2O6/g-C3N4 photocatalytic system with efficient visible light photocatalytic activity toward Cr(VI) photoreduction and methyl orange degradation. The samples were carefully characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy and photocatalytic test. It is found that SrTa2O6 was deposited on the surface of g-C3N4 and that obtained SrTa2O6/g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalyst showed strong absorption in the visible light region. Photocatalytic test indicated that the as-prepared SrTa2O6/g-C3N4 heterojunction showed increased photocatalytic activity toward Cr(VI) photoreduction and methyl orange degradation in comparison with the bare SrTa2O6 and g-C3N4 under visible light irradiation. The matching of the band structure between SrTa2O6 and g-C3N4 induced an efficient photogenerated electron transfer from the conduction band of g-C3N4 to the conduction band of SrTa2O6, resulting in efficient separation of the photogenerated electron–hole pairs and the subsequent promotion of photocatalytic activity. Moreover, the decoration of Ag on SrTa2O6/g-C3N4 led to the formation of ternary component Ag-SrTa2O6/g-C3N4 photocatalyst, which can highly enhance the visible light absorption efficiency and robustlypromote the photocatalytic activity by a factor of 2.8 for Cr(VI) photoreduction and 4.6 for methyl orange degradation, respectively. Ag decoration on SrTa2O6/g-C3N4 can not only extend the visible light absorption region due to surface plasmon resonance effects, but also act as an electron mediator for efficient migration of photogenerated electrons and simultaneously prevent the recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs as much as possible. Finally, a possible photocatalytic mechanism of the charge transfer in Ag-SrTa2O6/g-C3N4 photocatalyst was proposed.