Dielectric barrier discharge plasma-assisted modification of g-C 3 N 4 /Ag 2 O/TiO 2 -NRs composite enhanced photoelectrocatalytic activity.

Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma applied as surface treatment technology was employed for the modification of AgO and graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) powders. Subsequently, the pretreated powders were sequentially loaded onto TiO nanorods (TiO-NRs) via electro-deposition, followed by calcination at N atmosphere. The results indicated that at the optimal plasma discharge time of 5 min for modification of g-CN and AgO, photocurrent density of ternary composite was 6 times to bare TiO-NRs under UV-visible light irradiation. Phenol was degraded by using DBD plasma-modified g-CN/AgO/TiO-NRs electrode to analyze the photoelectrocatalytic performance. The removal rate of phenol for g-CN-5/AgO-5/TiO-NRs electrode was about 3.07 times to that for TiO-NRs electrode. During active species scavengers' analysis, superoxide radicals and hydroxyl radicals were the main oxidation active species for pollutants degradation. A possible electron-hole separation and transfer mechanism of ternary composite with high photoelectrocatalytic performance was proposed.