Z-scheme mechanism for methylene blue degradation over Fe₂O₃/g-C₃N₄ nanocomposite prepared via one-pot exfoliation and magnetization of g-C₃N₄

Abstract

The low surface area, high recombination rate of photogenerated charge carriers, narrow visible range activity, and difficulty in the separation from cleaned solutions limit the wide application of g-C₃N₄ as a photocatalyst. Herein, we have succeeded in developing a one-pot strategy to overcome the above-mentioned difficulties of g-C₃N₄. The broadening of the visible-light response range and inducing magnetic nature to g-C₃N₄ was succeeded by preparing a nanocomposite with Fe₂O₃ via a facile solvothermal method. The preparation method additionally imparted layer exfoliation of g-C₃N₄ as evident from the XRD patterns and TEM images. The strong interaction between the components is revealed from the XPS analysis. The broadened visible-light absorbance of Fe₂O₃/g-C₃N₄ with a Z-scheme photocatalytic degradation mechanism is well evident from the UV‒Vis DRS analysis and PL measurement of the composite with terephthalic acid. The active species of photocatalysis were further investigated using scavenging studies in methylene blue degradation that revealed hydroxyl radicals and holes as the major contributors to the activity of Fe₂O₃/g-C₃N₄.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Fe₂O₃/g-C₃N₄ nanocomposite / Z-scheme photocatalysis / magnetic separation / dye degradation

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Acknowledgments

S.M. and V.H. acknowledge UGC, New Delhi, India for research fellowships in the form of UGC-MANF and UGC-SRF, respectively. Sree Neelakanta Govt. Sanskrit College Pattambi and University of Calicut and are acknowledged for providing the facilities for carrying out the research work. DST-SAIF Cochin, India is acknowledged for TEM, UV-visible DRS, SEM-EDAX, and XRD analyses. IIT Kanpur is acknowledged for XPS analysis. IIT Madras is acknowledged for VSM analysis. PSG-IAS, Coimbatore is acknowledged for Raman analysis. DST-FIST, Govt. of India is acknowledged for instrumental facilities.

Electronic supplementary information

Supplementary materials can be found in the online version at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11706-022-0612-x, which are associated with this work including Figs. S1‒S4.

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