Heterostructured S-TiO2/g-C3N4 Photocatalysts with High Visible Light Photocatalytic Activity

Abstract

Novel heterojunctions associating graphitic carbon nitride g-C3N4 and S-doped TiO2 nanoparticles were successfully designed and prepared via a hydrothermal method and used for photocatalytic degradations. The loading in S-TiO2 nanoparticles on g-C3N4 was varied (5, 10 and 20 wt%), and the photocatalysts were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, solid-state UV-visible diffuse reflectance, photoluminescence, XPS, TEM and SEM. The S-TiO2 (5%)/g-C3N4 catalyst exhibits the highest activity for the photocatalytic degradation of the methylene blue (MB) dye under visible light irradiation. The high photocatalytic performance originates from the enhanced separation and transfer of photogenerated charge carriers. The S-TiO2 (5%)/g-C3N4 photocatalyst is stable and can be reused five times without a sharp drop in activity, indicating its high potential for wastewater remediation.