Photocatalytic reductive dechlorination of 2-chlorodibenzo-p-dioxin by Pd modified g-C3N4 photocatalysts under UV–vis irradiation: Efficacy, kinetics and mechanism

Abstract

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), as a group of notorious anthropogenic environmental toxicants, are arguably ubiquitous in nature. In this study, we investigated the photocatalytic reductive dechlorination of 2-chlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2-CDD) over Pd/g-C3N4 catalysts under UV–vis irradiation. The g-C3N4 and a series of Pd/g-C3N4 catalysts were prepared by thermal polymerization and mechanical mixing-illumination method and characterized by XRD, TEM, BET, SEM and UV–vis DRS analyses. Among all the samples, the Pd/g-C3N4 (5 wt%) yielded the optimal dechlorination activity with a total 2-CDD conversion of 54% within 4 h, and 76% of those converted 2-CDD were evolved to dibenzo-p-dioxin (DD). The kinetics of dechlorination could be described as pseudo-first-order decay model (R2 > 0.84). Corresponding rate constants (k) increased from 0.052 to 0.17 h−1 with Pd contents up to 5 wt% and decreased to 0.13 h−1 with a 10 wt% of Pd. The enhanced activities originated from the surface plasmonic resonance (SPR) effect of Pd nanoparticles and the formation of Schottky barrier between Pd and g-C3N4, which extend the spectrum responsive range and suppress the charge recombination of g-C3N4. This is the first report on the photocatalytic reductive removal of PCDDs and may provide a new approach for PCDDs pollution control.