A novel hydrothermal induced BiVO4/g-C3N4 heterojunctions visible-light photocatalyst for effective elimination of aqueous organic pollutants

• Published in: Vacuum 2020-10, Vol.180, p.109458, Article 109458
• Main Authors: Rathi, V., Panneerselvam, A., Sathiyapriya, R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 4-Chlorophenol; BiVO4/g-C3N4; Catalyst; Hydrothermal; Visible light
• ISSN: 0042-207X; 1879-2715
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vacuum.2020.109458

In this report, a novel BiVO4/g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalysts were developed through facile and one step hydrothermal route. Various characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Transmission electron microscope (TEM), Raman, UV–Visible diffuse reflectance (UV-DRS), Photoluminescence and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis have been carried out to know the structural, optical and textural behavior of the pure BiVO4 and various BiVO4/g-C3N4 hybrid catalysts. The basic characterization results suggest that interaction between BiVO4 and g-C3N4 was confirmed and a heterojunction was formed on the surface of g-C3N4/BiVO4 composite, which enhanced the separation and transfer of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Visible light induced photocatalytic degradation test was carried out for all the synthesized catalysts towards rhodamine B (RhB) and 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) dyes. Among the various composite catalysts, the 3:1 mass ratio of BiVO4/g-C3N4 (BVG3) catalyst achieves the optimum photocatalytic activity for the degradation of 4-CP, and reached 95.%, which is 3.7 times better than bare BiVO4 (25%). The hybrid catalyst has also delivered a high apparent constant (0.0821 min−1) and huge stability (loss only 2.25%). The improved photocatalytic mechanism was also discussed. •A simple and cost effective facile hydrothermal method was adopted to synthesize ultrafine BiVO4/g-C3N4 hybrid Photocatalysts.•This could be due to the Enhancing the light absorption property in the visible light region and prevent the recombination process.•BiVO4/g-C3N4 sample achieves the optimum photocatalytic activity for the degradation of 4-CP, and reached 95.%, which is 3.7 times better than bare BiVO4 (25%).