Design and Fabrication of a Novel Metal-Free SiO2/g-C3N4 Nanocomposite: A Robust Photocatalyst for the Degradation of Organic Contaminants

Abstract

Development of novel and efficient nanostructured materials for the waste water treatment is a great challenge for the researchers. In this regard, we report a novel SiO2/g-C3N4 nanocomposites were tailored via simple solvothermal route and characterized by various spectroscopic and microscopic techniques such as XRD, FT-IR, UV–Vis DRS, SEM, TEM and XPS. The photocatalytic performances of the as-prepared SiO2/g-C3N4 nanocomposites were evaluated for the removal of hazardous rhodamine B (RhB) and crystal violet (CV) organic dyes in aqueous solution under visible light irradiation. Interestingly, the UV–Visible spectroscopy results revealed that the as-synthesized SiO2/g-C3N4 nanocomposite showed superior photocatalytic activity for the degradation of RhB and CV dyes could degrade 99 and 98% under visible-light irradiation respectively. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of SiO2/g-C3N4 nanocomposites could be mainly attributed to the proficient separation of photo-induced charge carriers. A plausible degradation mechanism for the controlled visible-light photocatalytic activity of SiO2/g-C3N4 nanocomposites was strongly evidenced by the trapping experiment by employing different scavengers. The present research findings may open up a new platform for the g-C3N4 based photocatalyst for the degradation of organic pollutants. Proposed degradation mechanism of the SiO2/g-C3N4 photocatalyst.