Ag/AgBr-oxygen enriched g-C₃N₄ for efficient photocatalytic degradation of trimethylamine

In this study, Ag/AgBr-O-gCN samples with ternary Z-type heterojunctions were prepared by in situ photoreduction using water as the reducing agent for generating Ag/AgBr active species and oxygen doping. The experimental results indicated that Ag/AgBr-O-gCN degraded trimethylamine by nearly 100% in half an hour and maintained 90% of its original activity after five cycles. The kinetic constant of Ag/AgBr-O-gCN was excellent at 0.0928 min^-1, 3.8 times that of gCN, 2.3 times that of Ag/AgBr-gCN, and 1.9 times that of O-gCN. Unlike Ag/AgBr-gCN photoreduced by methanol, gCN was used as an electron donor in the aqueous solution during the photoreduction process, and oxidation sites between the gCN skeleton and Ag/AgBr were formed for constructing the heterojunction system. The Z-type heterojunction system was established by introducing a suitable size of Ag nanoparticles as the recombination center to keep indirect contact between gCN and AgBr. This effectively reduced the electron-hole recombination rate and caused activity enhancement. This study offers a novel idea for the construction of a ternary heterojunction.