Synthesis of Fe2O3/g-C3N4 composite with efficient photocatalytic degradation for methyl orange

Abstract

g-C3N4 is a metal-free photocatalytic material, but it has poor photocatalytic activity due to its fast e-/h+ recombination rate. In this paper, Fe2O3/g-C3N4 composite was constructed to improve the photocatalytic property of g-C3N4. The photocatalytic performance of Fe2O3/g-C3N4 composite was evaluated for the methyl orange (MO) degradation under simulate visible light. The results showed that Fe2O3 combined with g-C3N4 can obviously decline the e-/h+ recombination rate, which was attributed to the synergistic effect in Fe2O3/g-C3N4 composite that increased the lifetime of photogenerated carriers. What’s more, the degradation rate of MO by 1 %-Fe2O3/g-C3N4 composite can reach 92.2 % within 60 min. Furthermore, 1 %-Fe2O3/g-C3N4 composite also had excellent photocatalytic stability.