Synthesis of AgI-decorated I-doped g-C3N4 photocatalyst systems for advanced bacterial inactivation performance

The development of efficient photocatalyst heterogeneous junctions has become a major focus of research for removing microbial pollution. In the current work, we assembled I-doped g-C 3 N 4 decorated with AgI (AgI/ICN) heterostructures (with different AgI ratios (from 10 to 40 wt%), to achieve high visible light–based photocatalytic disinfection efficiency toward Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus ). Under visible illumination, the optimum 20wt%-AgI/ICN hybrid achieved complete inactivation efficiency, almost 10-, 8-, and 5-times greater than that of undoped CN, ICN, and AgI, respectively. I-doping enlarges the CN response in the visible light region, while the type II heterojunction developed between ICN and AgI leads to an effective separation of charge-carriers. According to the trapping tests, the key reactive oxygen species (ROS) inactivating S. aureus were • O 2 − and h + , which approves the suggested mechanism.