Hydrothermally activated TiO 2 nanoparticles with a C-dot/g-C 3 N 4 heterostructure for photocatalytic enhancement

• Published in: Nanoscale advances 2021-07, Vol.3 (14), p.4089-4097
• Main Authors: Chen, Zhong-yi, Ji, Tian-hao, Xu, Zhe-mi, Guan, Peiyuan, Jv, Da-jian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2516-0230; 2516-0230
• DOI: 10.1039/D1NA00213A

Dye degradation via photocatalysis technology has been investigated intensively to tackle environmental issues and energy crisis concerns. In this study, a newly designed ternary photocatalyst was facilely prepared by a simple one-pot hydrothermal process by directly mixing TiO 2 nanoparticles with carbon dots (C-dots) and graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ). The optimized precursor treatments and heterostructure components show significantly enhanced photodegradation activity towards organic dyes Rhodamine B (RhB) and methylene blue (MB). Excellent photocatalytic activities were achieved owing to the better attachment of anatase-type TiO 2 nanoparticle-aggregations to the C-dots/g-C 3 N 4 (CC) nanocomposite, which impressively displays superhydrophilicity by employing the hydrothermal activation process. FT-IR spectra revealed that the hydrothermal treatment could remarkably increase the coupling interactions between TiO 2 nanoparticles and the CC nanosheets within the ternary catalyst, enhancing the photocatalytic activity. Thus, it was concluded that this ternary photocatalyst is highly suitable for the remediation of dye-contaminated wastewater.