Enhanced dye degradation performance enabled by swift electron mediator decorated WO3/g-C3N4/V2O5 hybrid nanomaterials.

Abstract

Organic pollutants such as dyes and pharmaceutical drugs have become a significant environmental problem due to their unrestricted discharge, especially in water bodies. As a result, an economically viable and environmentally friendly approach to their degradation in water bodies is required and the incorporation of metal tungstate with single metal oxide has attracted attention due to its potential ability towards the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants. The work demonstrates a WO3/g-C3N4/V2O5 nanocomposite synthesized using a facile routewet impregnation method. The results revealed that WO3/g-C3N4/V2O5 nanocomposites are suitable, mainly for their better surface properties, enhanced visible-light absorption, and preferred band positions. Besides that, the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye is carried out and demonstrated that the complete degradation occurs over 120min using 10mg L-1 of WO3/g-C3N4/V2O5 nanocomposite under UV-visible-light irradiation. The scavenger experimental result implies that the photogenerated free electrons and superoxide radials are important role in MB dye degradation. In addition, a possible mechanism is proposed for the photocatalytic activity of WO3/g-C3N4/V2O5 nanocomposite. Moreover, the stability analysis demonstrated that the WO3/g-C3N4/V2O5 nanocomposite can be recycled multiple times.