Plasma Ag-Modified α-Fe(2)O(3)/g-C(3)N(4) Self-Assembled S-Scheme Heterojunctions with Enhanced Photothermal-Photocatalytic-Fenton Performances

Low spectral utilization and charge carrier compounding limit the application of photocatalysis in energy conversion and environmental purification, and the rational construction of heterojunction is a promising strategy to break this bottleneck. Herein, we prepared surface-engineered plasma Ag-modified α-Fe(2)O(3)/g-C(3)N(4) S-Scheme heterojunction photothermal catalysts by electrostatic self-assembly and light deposition strategy. The local surface plasmon resonance effect induced by Ag nanoparticles broadens the spectral response region and produces significant photothermal effects. The temperature of Ag/α-Fe(2)O(3)/g-C(3)N(4) powder is increased to 173 °C with irradiation for 90 s, ~3.2 times higher than that of the original g-C(3)N(4). The formation of 2D/2D structured S-Scheme heterojunction promotes rapid electron-hole transfer and spatial separation. Ternary heterojunction construction leads to significant enhancement of photocatalytic performance of Ag/α-Fe(2)O(3)/g-C(3)N(4), the H(2) photocatalytic generation rate up to 3125.62 µmol g(−1) h(−1), which is eight times higher than original g-C(3)N(4), and the photocatalytic degradation rate of tetracycline to reach 93.6%. This thermally assisted photocatalysis strategy improves the spectral utilization of conventional photocatalytic processes and provides new ideas for the practical application of photocatalysis in energy conversion and environmental purification.