V2C MXene–modified g-C3N4 for enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity

• Published in: Journal of alloys and compounds 2024-01, Vol.970, p.172656, Article 172656
• Main Authors: Xu, Ruizheng, Wei, Guiyu, Xie, Zhemin, Diao, Sijie, Wen, Jianfeng, Tang, Tao, Jiang, Li, Li, Ming, Hu, Guanghui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Charge transfer; Cocatalyst; g-C3N4; Photocatalyst; Separation efficiency; V2C MXene
• ISSN: 0925-8388; 1873-4669
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2023.172656

Increasing the efficiency of charge transfer and separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers are still the main challenges in the field of semiconductor-based photocatalysts. Herein, we synthesized g-C3N4@V2C MXene photocatalyst by modifying g-C3N4 using V2C MXene. The prepared photocatalyst exhibited outstanding photocatalytic performance under visible light. The degradation efficiency of methyl orange by g-C3N4@V2C MXene photocatalyst was as high as 94.5%, which is 1.56 times higher than that by g-C3N4. This was attributed to the V2C MXene inhibiting the rapid recombination of photogenerated carriers and facilitating rapid transfer of photogenerated electrons (e−) from g-C3N4 to MXene. Moreover, g-C3N4@V2C MXene photocatalyst showed good cycling stability. The photocatalytic performance was higher than 85% after three cycles. Experiments to capture free radicals revealed that superoxide radicals (·O2−) are the main contributors to the photocatalytic activity. Thus, the proposed g-C3N4@V2C MXene photocatalyst is a promising visible-light catalyst. •The self-assembly mixing technique was used to synthesize the g-C3N4@V2C MXene photocatalyst.•The g-C3N4@V2C MXene photocatalyst greatly improves the separation and transfer efficiency between carriers.•The degradation rate of methyl orange (MO) by g-C3N4@V2C MXene is as high as 94.5%.•The g-C3N4@V2C MXene photocatalyst showed good stability after three cyclic degradation experiments.