Preparation of highly effective Bi2MoO6/g-C3N4/NiO photocatalyst to degrade dibenzothiophene under visible light: Effective parameters, kinetics, and mechanism

• Published in: Journal of industrial and engineering chemistry (Seoul, Korea) Korea), 2024-12
• Main Authors: Dashtpeyma, Ghasem, Shabanian, Seyed Reza, Maghsoudi, Zahra
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bi2MoO6/g-C3N4; Dibenzothiophene; NiO; Photocatalytic oxidative desulfurization; Visible light
• ISSN: 1226-086X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jiec.2024.12.021

[Display omitted] •A Bi2MoO6/g-C3N4/NiO ternary photocatalyst was synthesized using solvothermal and impregnation methods.•Air served as an inexpensive oxidizer for degrading dibenzothiophene under visible light.•The effect of various parameters were investigated in photocatalytic oxidative desulfurization.•Detailed discussions on the photocatalytic mechanism and kinetic studies were provided. In this study, a Bi2MoO6/g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalyst was synthesized via solvothermal method to degrade dibenzothiophene through oxidative desulfurization. Nickel oxide (NiO) was impregnated in varying amounts onto the Bi2MoO6/g-C3N4 binary sample to enhance efficiency. Techniques such as XRD, FTIR, BET, FE-SEM, EDX-MAP, TEM, DRS and PL analyses were employed to determine the properties of the samples. Various factors were examined in photocatalytic oxidative desulfurization process under visible light using air (O2) as the oxidizer. The results showed that dibenzothiophene sulfur compounds were degraded by 90.5 % under conditions of 75 mg and 400 ppm using an acetonitrile extractor in 60 min. Additionally, recycling experiments indicated that the synthesized photocatalyst could be reused multiple times. The photocatalytic mechanism was discussed based on calculated band gap, valence band and conduction band. Scavenging experiments results indicated that h+ and •O2– species were known as the primary species in the photocatalytic degradation process and the charge carrier mechanism is predicted by a type (II) heterojunction between the g-C3N4 and Bi2MoO6 photocatalysts. Kinetic results revealed that the optimum sample had the highest rate constant, leading to superior photocatalytic performance. This research offers a promising strategy for developing effective visible light photocatalysts for environmental remediation purposes.