Fabrication of metal-free PTET-T-COOH/g-C3N4 heterostructure for enhancing photocatalytic activity.

Abstract

In this research work, we successfully fabricated a range of PTET-T-COOH/g-C3N4 heterostructures via a simple method. The as-prepared PTET-T-COOH/g-C3N4 heterostructures show enhanced photocatalytic degradation activity as compared to pure g-C3N4. For the photocatalytic degradation of RhB, the optimal PTET-T-COOH/g-C3N4-1% heterostructure is nearly 3.83 times that of the pure g-C3N4. The enhancement of photocatalytic performance is ascribed to three aspects: one is the strong interaction between PTET-T-COOH and g-C3N4; the second is the larger surface area of the PTET-T-COOH/g-C3N4 heterostructure compared to that of pure g-C3N4; the third is the effectively improved transferability of photogenerated carriers. In addition, the whole photocatalytic reaction mechanism over the PTET-T-COOH/g-C3N4 heterostructure is provided. This work may offer a hopeful method to synthesize any other heterostructure with high stability and superior photocatalytic activity.