Preparation of visible light-WO3/g-C3N4/PANI photocatalyst onto glass and their photocatalytic properties

Abstract

Wastewater from palm oil industry mostly contains hazardous effluent like palm oil mill effluent (POME) and photocatalytic technology is one of the most effective ways for the degradation of harmful organic pollutants. Nevertheless, the effects of suspended photocatalysts obviously would dwindle the photocatalytic performances. The immobilization of photocatalyst as a newest innovation has received significant attention due to its great potential in terms of recycling, economic, physical–chemical properties, and technological aspects. This paper reports the synthesis of novel WO3/g-C3N4/PANI glass as a retrievable visible-light photocatalyst by simple soft-templating and calcination followed by spin coating with different speed and duration coating. The functional group of O-W-O stretching vibration, hydrophilicity of the immobilized WO3/g-C3N4/PANI glass indicated the presence of WO3/g-C3N4/PANI onto glass was succesfully. The optimum parameters obtained were at a speed of 30 s and duration spinning of 1000 rpm due to the presence of more active sites. In particular, immobilized WO3/g-C3N4/PANI glass showed a good photocatalytic activity in term of decolorization and degradation studies about 25 % and 53 %, respectively, after 7 h under visible light irradiation and energy storage scheme. The results signify possible applications of immobilized WO3/g-C3N4/PANI glass in visible-light-driven and energy-storage-mechanism for a cost-effective treatment of wastewater.