Abstract
To meet the urgent need of society for advanced photocatalytic materials, novel visible light driven heterostructured composite was constructed based on graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) and fibrous TiO2. The g-C3N4/TiO2 (CNT) composite was prepared through electrospinning technology and followed calcination process. The state of the g-C3N4 and fibrous TiO2 was tightly coupled. The photocatalytic performance was measured by degrading the Rhodamine B. Compared to commercial TiO2 (P25®) and electrospun TiO2 nanofibers, the photocatalytic performance of CNT composite was higher than them. The formation of CNT heterostructures and the enlarged specific surface area enhanced the photocatalytic performance, suppressing the recombination rate of photogenerated carriers while broadening the absorption range of light spectrum. Our studies have demonstrated that heterostructured CNT composite with an appropriate proportion can rational use of visible light and can significantly promote the photogenerated charges transferred at the contact interface between g-C3N4 and TiO2.
Highlights
Dye wastewater was a kind of industrial organic pollution with large chroma, complex composition and difficult to be biochemically treated
The yellow g-C3N4 was synthesized by calcination the melamine at 550 ◦C for 4 h, following the method mentioned in the literature [36]
The results further indicate that the g-C3N4/TiO2 heterostructures have been successfully formed, which was matched well with the results obtained by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV and PL
Summary
Dye wastewater was a kind of industrial organic pollution with large chroma, complex composition and difficult to be biochemically treated. It is urgent to find a new strategy for narrowing the band gap of TiO2, prolonging the lifetime of photogenerated carriers, and improving the photocatalytic performance of the photocatalyst. [17,18,19] This strategy can extend the light capture range of TiO2 to the visible light region, and separate the photogenerated carriers at the contract interface between two different band gap materials through matched energy levels coupling, thereby enhancing the performance of photocatalytic. The heterostructured CNT composite can be directly obtained after calcination, the doped g-C3N4 content accounted for a limited proportion of the composite material, and the heterostructures formed by the contact between g-C3N4 and TiO2 had few sites, making it difficult to harvest a better photocatalytic effect. The CNT composite was promising to be applied in practical environmental protection for removing the organic pollutants
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