Vanadium sulfide decorated graphitic carbon nitride nanocomposite for the enhanced photocatalytic activity towards organic pollutants

Abstract

A simple, efficient and fast two-step hydrothermal approach was used to synthesize novel dandelion like vanadium sulfide (VS4) decorated graphitic carbon nitride (GCN) nanocomposite photocatalyst. Numerous characterization techniques like X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV–vis spectroscopy were used to investigate the physicochemical aspects such as crystallinity, morphology, optical properties and functional groups of the prepared pure GCN, pure VS4 and VS4/GCN nanocomposite. From the XRD analysis, the formation of VS4/GCN nanocomposite was confirmed with monoclinic structure. The optical characteristics were revealed by UV–vis Spectroscopy and bandgap energy values for pure GCN, pure VS4 and VS4/GCN nanocomposite were found to be 2.74 eV, 1.63 eV and 2.21 eV respectively. FTIR studies confirmed the functionalities in the nanocomposite formation. The dandelion like surface morphology of the prepared VS4 were confirmed by FE-SEM. Photocatalytic degradation process was carried out for the removal of organic dyes (Rhodamine B, methylene blue) from factitious wastewater under visible light irradiation. From the obtained results, a possible mechanism for the improvement of photocatalytic performance was discussed.