Synthesis and characterization of AgO/g-C3N4 hybrids with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity for Rhodamine B degradation and bactericidal inactivation

Abstract The AgO/g-C3N4 hybrids were prepared by growing and anchoring AgO nanoparticles on the surface of g-C3N4. The results demonstrated that AgO nanoparticles were well-dispersed on the surface of g-C3N4 and AgO/g-C3N4 hybrids were formed. Compared with bulk g-C3N4, the hybrids with narrow bandgap could adsorb visible light effectively. Additionally, the hybrids exhibited improved photocatalytic activity for RhB degradation under visible light irradiation and strong bactericidal activity against S. aureus. The RhB degradation and S. aureus inactivation were increased with increasing AgO content, in which the hybrid with 35.0 wt% of AgO showed maximum RhB degradation and minimum numbers of survival S. aureus colonies existed, and owned an apparent rate constant about 24.474 and 0.775 times higher than those of blank g-C3N4 and AgO, respectively. The improved activity of the hybrids might be attributed to highly dispersed AgO nanoparticles, increased visible light absorption and high separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-holes originating from the well-matched band structure between AgO and g-C3N4.