Constructing the novel ultrafine amorphous iron oxyhydroxide/g-C3N4 nanosheets heterojunctions for highly improved photocatalytic performance

Hongcen Yang,Ruya Cao,Xiaolong Deng,Xijin Xu,Zhipeng Li,Shouwei Zhang

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-09283-1

Hongcen Yang, Ruya Cao + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-09283-1

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Journal: Scientific Reports	Publication Date: Aug 17, 2017
Citations: 54	License type: open-access

Affiliation: University of Jinan

Abstract

Ultrafine particles, more heterojunction interfaces and amorphous materials can effectively enhance the photocatalytic activity of photocatalysts. In this work, a facile in-situ precipitation method was developed to prepare ultrafine amorphous iron oxyhydroxide/ultrathin g-C3N4 nanosheets heterojunction composites. The amorphous iron oxyhydroxide possessed an ultrafine particle size and a wide range of visible light absorption. In this process, the ultrafine particles not only shortened the diffusion distance of photogenerated carriers, but also facilitated the formation of more heterojunctions with ultrathin g-C3N4 nanosheets. The photocatalytic activities were evaluated using rhodamine B, methylene blue, and methyl orange as pollution models under visible light irradiation. Notably, the optimal photocatalytic activity of a-FeOOH/CNNS-800 composite is ~17.8 times higher than that of CNNS towards the degradation of rhodamine B under visible light. The outstanding photocatalytic activities were ascribed to the narrower band gap, the enhanced visible light absorbance, abundant heterojunction interfaces, and the effective separation of the photogenerated charges driven by the matched band edge in the heterostructures. We trusted that the facile and easy-to-extend synthesis method can be further expanded to synthesize other ultrafine semiconductors coupled with g-C3N4 for enhancing the photocatalytic activities.

Highlights

In recent years, the environmental pollution is becoming more and more serious with the development of economy, which has become a serious threat to human survival and development[1,2,3,4]
It is expected that the amorphous iron oxyhydroxide coupled g-C3N4 would show high photocatalytic performance due to the following reasons: (i) it could obtain a wide range of visible light absorption; (ii) it has a suitable band structure, which could form heterojunctions, decreased the recombination of photogenerated charge and improved the photocatalytic efficiency[17, 29]
It is feasible to enhance the photocatalytic activities of g-C3N4-based photocatalysts by tuning the size and distribution of the coupled nanoparticles benefited from the two merits: (i) the smaller particles obviously shorten the diffusion distance of photogenerated carriers, improving the photocatalytic performance; (ii) ultrafine particles coupling with g-C3N4 can generate more effective heterojunctions and further facilitate the synergistic reaction between semiconductors and g-C3N432–35

Summary

Introduction

The environmental pollution is becoming more and more serious with the development of economy, which has become a serious threat to human survival and development[1,2,3,4]. It is expected that the amorphous iron oxyhydroxide coupled g-C3N4 would show high photocatalytic performance due to the following reasons: (i) it could obtain a wide range of visible light absorption; (ii) it has a suitable band structure, which could form heterojunctions, decreased the recombination of photogenerated charge and improved the photocatalytic efficiency[17, 29].

Results

Conclusion