Designing S-scheme of TiO2@g-C3N4/graphene Heterojunction with enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible light: Experiments and DFT calculations

Abstract

Using a dual hydrothermal pathway, this study investigated an S-scheme heterojunction of synthesized TiO2, g-C3N4, and graphene. The enhanced photocatalytic performance of the composite with an optimized graphene content of 0.1 wt% was clarified due to the improved charge transfer following the S-scheme and formation of the built-in electric field, which is supported by both experiment and density functional theory results. Furthermore, the decomposition pathway of Rhodamine B was investigated using the liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS) technique with a proposed mechanism.