Hydrothermal Synthesis of Heterostructured g-CN/Ag-TiO Nanocomposites for Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Pollutants.

In this study, heterostructured g-CN/Ag-TiO nanocomposites were successfully fabricated using an easily accessible hydrothermal route. Various analytical tools were employed to investigate the surface morphology, crystal structure, specific surface area, and optical properties of as-synthesized samples. XRD and TEM characterization results provided evidence of the successful fabrication of the ternary g-CN/Ag-TiO heterostructured nanocomposite. The heterostructured g-CN/Ag-TiO nanocomposite exhibited the best degradation efficiency of 98.04% against rhodamine B (RhB) within 180 min under visible LED light irradiation. The g-CN/Ag-TiO nanocomposite exhibited an apparent reaction rate constant 13.16, 4.7, and 1.33 times higher than that of TiO, Ag-TiO, and g-CN, respectively. The g-CN/Ag-TiO ternary composite demonstrated higher photocatalytic activity than pristine TiO and binary Ag-TiO photocatalysts for the degradation of RhB under visible LED light irradiation. The improved photocatalytic performance of the g-CN/Ag-TiO nanocomposite can be attributed to the formation of an excellent heterostructure between TiO and g-CN as well as the incorporation of Ag nanoparticles, which promoted efficient charge carrier separation and transfer and suppressed the rate of recombination. Therefore, this study presents the development of heterostructured g-CN/Ag-TiO nanocomposites that exhibit excellent photocatalytic performance for the efficient degradation of harmful organic pollutants in wastewater, making them promising candidates for environmental remediation.