First-rate photocatalytic degradation of wastewater pollutants and antibacterial activities and H2 evolution of hierarchical WO3 embedded BiOCl/g-C3N4 nanocomposites

Abstract

Highly efficient and stable WO3-embedded hierarchical BiOCl/g-C3N4 (WBG) composites have been synthesized by a two-step solvothermal route. Phase identification and other structural and microstructural parameters are evaluated by analyzing the XRD pattern of respective composites employing the Rietveld refinement technique. HRTEM images reveal that BiOCl and WO3 nanoparticles of size 20–25 and 4–6 nm are embedded uniformly on the surface of g-C3N4 nanosheets respectively. The nanocomposites offered outstanding photocatalytic performance by showing degradation of colored dyes, colorless pollutants, tetracycline antibiotics and reduction of Cr (VI). About 95% of RhB dyes within 8 min, ∼91% phenol within 150 min, ∼85% tetracycline (TC) within a record 20 min have been degraded, and 98% Cr (VI) reduced within 10 min from wastewater under sunlight irradiation in the presence of the WBG3 nanocomposite. In addition, the WBG3 nanocomposite shows a significant photocatalytic H2 production rate of 2 mmol.h−1 g−1. Apart from that, the growth of gram-positive and gram-negative pathogenic bacteria is notably inhibited by WBG nanocomposite, comparable to the same concentration of the pure drug. This work provides a strong framework to fabricate future-generation photocatalysts for the remediation of organic pollutants and heavy metals and for producing solar light-driven hydrogen evolution.