Excellent photocatalytic activity of MoO3-adorned g-C3N4 systems: Construction of S-scheme heterojunction

Jianmin Luo, Haonan Han, Jingwu Wu, Xinlei Wang, Junli Feng, Sam Toan, Lei Wang, Yinlong Lai

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

To alleviate harmful pollutants in water, photocatalytic technology, which offers green degradation of pollutants, is being used. The g-C3N4 is a metal-free organic polymer semiconductor photocatalyst widely used in photocatalysis. However, some drawbacks have limited its practical application. Thus, constructing of semiconductor heterojunction with appropriate band structure to improve photocatalysis activity for g-C3N4is an effective and common means to overcome the drawbacks. Therefore, in this study, MoO3/g-C3N4 (MoCN) was prepared via the one-step calcination method. The photocatalytic performance of the composite was evaluated via photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) and the data revealed that the 3MoCN composite semiconductor greatly enhanced the activity (about 6.3 times) of pure g-C3N4 toward the degradation of RhB. Meanwhile, the free radical masking experiments suggested [rad]O2 as the major oxidizing species in the MoCN system. The specific area of the composite system of MoCN was 3.7-fold higher than that of pure g-C3N4. Furthermore, the photoelectric properties tests and DFT demonstrated improved photoactivity of MoO3/g-C3N4 due to the movement of Fermi levels and built-in electric field close to the S-scheme heterojunction interface. Our work demonstrated a simple strategy to prepare efficient photocatalysts for environmental remediation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number154512
JournalApplied Surface Science
Volume604
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was partially supported by the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Reseach Foundation under Grant 2021A1515010060, 2021A1515010185 and 2019B121201004, in part by Guangdong Province Scientific Research Platform Project under Grant 2019KTSCX162, in part by the Guangdong Province Specialized Scientific Research Fund Projects, and in part by the Guangdong Province University Engineering Technology Center Projects under Grant 2021GCZX011.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

  • MoO/g-CN
  • Photocatalytic degradation
  • Rhodamine B
  • S-scheme heterojunction
  • Theoretical calculation

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Excellent photocatalytic activity of MoO3-adorned g-C3N4 systems: Construction of S-scheme heterojunction'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this