Ultrathin low dimensional heterostructure composites with superior photocatalytic activity: Insight into the multichannel charge transfer mechanism

Multi-level and multi-angle designations of photocatalysts have attracted great attention to address the insufficient photogenerated charge generation and transformation in photocatalysis. In this study, we reported an ultrathin 1D/2D W18O49/g-C3N4 nanocomposites with unique multiscale structure and electronic property through direct growth of 1D plasmonic W18O49 nanowires onto the surface of 2D ultrathin g-C3N4 nanosheets. Owing to the unique multiscale structure and electronic property, the synthesized nanocomposites present enhanced photocatalytic activity, owns the maximum removal efficiency of 96.3% and rate constant of 0.0464 min−1 for Ibuprofen (IBF) after 60 min under AM 1.5G light. Meanwhile, under near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation, the optimum UWN-3 present 39.2% removal efficiency of IBF and the reaction rate reached 0.0027 min−1 after 120 min. Additionally, the degradation pathway indicated that the decarboxylation process was the main decomposition route of IBF in this reaction system, and [rad]OH radical species attack process also contributed to the degradation of IBF. Scavenge experiments and mechanism analysis illustrated that IBF degradation in this reaction system mainly depends on h+, [rad]O2– and [rad]OH radical species, and the promoted photocatalytic performance of the synthesized ultrathin 1D/2D W18O49/g-C3N4 nanocomposites are stem from the synergism of the multichannel photogenerated charge transfer pathways. The combination of the multichannel charge transfer pathways mentioned above resulted in the highly efficient photocatalytic activity of the ultrathin 1D/2D W18O49/g-C3N4 nanocomposites.