Facial synthesis of a novel Ag4V2O7/g-C3N4 heterostructure with highly efficient photoactivity

A novel Ag₄V₂O₇/g-C₃N₄ heterostructure was synthesized by a facial etching method in ammonia solution using Ag₂VO₂PO₄/g-C₃N₄ as a self-sacrifice precursor. With the concentration of ammonia solution increasing from 0.05 to 0.2 M, phase transformation took place, described as: Ag₂VO₂PO₄/g-C₃N₄ → Ag₂VO₂PO₄/Ag₄V₂O₇/g-C₃N₄ → Ag₄V₂O₇/g-C₃N₄. Compared with pristine Ag₂VO₂PO₄/g-C₃N₄, the etched samples of Ag₄V₂O₇/g-C₃N₄ and Ag₂VO₂PO₄/Ag₄V₂O₇/g-C₃N₄ exhibited dramatically improved activity for the degradation of methylene blue (MB), methyl orange (MO) and imidacloprid under visible light irradiation. When etched with 0.15 M ammonia solution, an Ag₄V₂O₇/g-C₃N₄ heterostructure was obtained that exhibited the highest photoactivity. This photocatalyst was nearly 9.1, 3.0, and 24.3 times more efficient than pristine Ag₂VO₂PO₄/g-C₃N₄ for degradation of MB, MO and imidacloprid, respectively. The excellent photocatalytic performance can be ascribed to the as-obtained well-defined Ag₄V₂O₇/g-C₃N₄ heterojunction, which improves the separation and transfer efficiency and prolongs the lifetime of photoinduced charges. In addition, the stability and dominant radicals were investigated.