@article {LIU2022133604, title = {Construction of Z-scheme Ag/AgVO3/carbon-rich g-C3N4 heterojunction for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of sulfamethiadiazole: DFT calculation and mechanism study}, journal = {Chemical Engineering Journal}, volume = {433}, year = {2022}, pages = {133604}, abstract = {A novel Z-scheme Ag/AgVO3/carbon-rich g-C3N4 heterojunction with excellent solar-light-driven photocatalytic activity was constructed via a facile hydrothermal-calcining method. The Ag/AgVO3/carbon-rich g-C3N4 composites displayed superior performance for the photocatalytic degradation of sulfamethiadiazole (SFZ) under solar irradiation. The optimal composite with a 10~wt\% Ag/AgVO3 content showed the highest photocatalytic activity, its degradation rate constant (k) for SFZ degradation was~\~{}13 and 30 times than that of carbon-rich g-C3N4 (CCN) and Ag/AgVO3, respectively. Furthermore, {\textbullet}O2{\textendash} was identified as the most crucial reactive species in the Z-scheme photocatalysis system. The greatly improved photocatalytic activities are derived from the built-in electric field (BIEF) of CCN and efficient Z-scheme charge transfer with Ag nanoparticles as charge transmission-bridge. The possible photocatalytic degradation mechanism and pathway over Ag/AgVO3/carbon-rich g-C3N4 were proposed based on LC-MS analysis and density functional theory (DFT) calculation, and the toxicity of intermediates was evaluated by Quantitative structure{\textendash}activity relationship (QSAR) based prediction. In summary, this work provides new insight into constructing highly efficient Z-scheme photocatalyst, which is promising for implementation in surface water remediation.}, keywords = {Ag/AgVO, Antibiotics, Carbon-rich g-CN, Photocatalytic, Z-scheme heterojunction}, issn = {1385-8947}, doi = {http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2021.133604}, url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1385894721051780}, author = {Zhixin Liu and Yongdi Liu and Xianbo Sun and Ji, Haodong and Liu, Wen and Cai, Zhengqing} }