Graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets decorated with CuCr2O4 nanoparticles: Novel photocatalysts with high performances in visible light degradation of water pollutants

Abstract

In this paper, CuCr2O4 nanoparticles were decorated on the surface of g-C3N4 nanosheets (g-C3N4-NS) by a facile refluxing process. The structure, composition, morphology, optical, textural, and thermal properties were characterized by XRD, EDX, SEM, TEM, UV–vis DRS, FT-IR, XPS, PL, BET, and TGA techniques. The photocatalytic performance of g-C3N4-NS/CuCr2O4 nanocomposites was assessed by degrading RhB and MB dyes and phenol under visible-light illumination. When the loading amount of CuCr2O4 was 10 wt%, the nanocomposite exhibited the highest activity. Activity of the g-C3N4-NS/CuCr2O4 (10%) nanocomposite refluxed for 3h and calcined at 520°C for 4h was almost 11.8 and 4.8 times greater than those of the bulk g-C3N4 and g-C3N4-NS photocatalysts in degradation of RhB, respectively. In the prepared nanocomposites, nanosheets of g-C3N4 act not only as CuCr2O4 support, but also as co-catalyst. The novel visible-light-active photocatalyst has considerable stability and it can be reused for five times without obvious loss of its photocatalytic activity.