Abstract
We examine the photocatalytic activity (PCA) of ZnO/graphitic carbon nitride g-C3N4 (g-CN) composite material for methylene blue (MB) degradation under visible-light irradiation (VLI). The polymeric g-CN materials were fabricated by the pyrolysis of urea and thiourea. More importantly, ZnO/g-CN nanostructured composites were fabricated by adding the different mounts (60, 65, 70, and 75 wt.%) of g-CN into ZnO via the simple hydrothermal process. Among fabricated composites, the 75% ZnO/g-CN nanocomposites displayed a superior PCA for MB degradation, which were ~three-fold an enhancement over the pure ZnO nanoparticles. The fabricated materials have been evaluated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and electron microscopy. More importantly, the photodegradation of MB could get 98% in ZnO/g-CN could be credited to efficient separation of photo-induced charge carriers between ZnO and g-CN. Also, the recycling efficiency of the as-prepared composites was studied for multiple cycles, which shows that the photocatalysts are stable and suitable to carry out photocatalytic degradation in the logistic mode. Additionally, the probable photocatalytic mechanism has also discussed. The synthetic procedure of ZnO/g-CN based materials can be used in numerous fields such as environmental and in energy storage applications.
Highlights
In the modern world, consumption of non-renewable fossil fuels by the growing human population is resulting in a rapid depletion of fuels and ecological pollution at a frightening rate [1,2]
The average particle size of the ZnO particles was used to calculate Scherrer’s equation, the obtained particle size was 40 ± 2 nm. These results revealed that the ZnO fabricated onto g-CN with the chemical bonding of Zn–N was successfully achieved via condensation reactions
The2020, stability of the synthesized catalyst materials was examined by recycling the photocatalysts10 of 14 for the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye
Summary
Consumption of non-renewable fossil fuels by the growing human population is resulting in a rapid depletion of fuels and ecological pollution at a frightening rate [1,2]. Wider band-gap semiconductor materials such as TiO2 , ZnO, and. ZnO or other single metal-based materials mostly suffered from photocorrosion and have average performance On this regard, few scientific efforts are dedicated to finding suitable approaches for decreasing the recombination rate of charge carriers working under VLI [18,19]. Various reports are carried out to promote the PCA employing conventional several supporting candidates which can haste an efficient separation of photoinduced charge carriers, namely semiconductors, graphene, CNT, and other carbonaceous materials. The formation of heterojunctions between ZnO and g-CN has the potential to develop efficient materials for photocatalytic applications In this regard, it is imperious to synthesize a different variety of carbon sources to fabricate polymeric g-CN catalysts by a simple and cost-effective method. A feasible photodegradation mechanism of MB above synthesized ZnO/g-CN nanocomposites has been proposed
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