Ternary V-Scheme Ag2WO4/BaO/NiO Heterojunction Photocatalysts: Very Fast Degradation Process for Congo Red under UV-Light Irradiation

With increasing industrial production, pollutants generated in t h e process of bleaching or dying disperse to the natural water medium. Therefore, an effective photocatalytic material must be prepared for water treatment quickly. In the present study, a novel and effective V-scheme Ag2WO4/BaO/NiO heterostructure photocatalyst with high photocatalytic performance for the degradation of different organic pollutants was designed and formed by a simple precipitation method. Scanning electron microscopy images showed that BaO, NiO, and Ag2WO4/BaO/NiO have a nanopipe, spherical, and nanorod morphology, respectively. X-ray diffraction results indicated that cubic phases were obtained with higher crystallite structure and lower crystallite distortion. The optical properties of the samples exhibited UV-absorption regions with about 3.35, 3.38, and 3.28 eV band gaps for BaO, BaO/NiO, and Ag2WO4/BaO/NiO, respectively. The photocatalytic acti v i t y was investigated by the degradation of Congo red under UV-light irradiation. To investigate the photocatalytic mechanism, the photodegradation performance of the catalyst was analyzed with different scavengers such as isopropyl alcohol, ascorbic acid, and potassium iodide (KI), and it was shown that the main active species were center dot O2- radicals and that OH center dot radicals have a significant contribution toward the degradation process. Compared to bare BaO and BaO/NiO samples, Ag2WO4/BaO/NiO showed excellent photocatalytic act i v i t y and about 41%, 66 and 99% of Congo red photodegraded under UV light wit h i n 30 min. The reason for this is that the Ag2WO4/BaO/NiO heterostructure displayed wider contact which promoted more charge-transfer ways to shorten the electron transportation path and increase the inhibition of electron-hole pairs.