Enhanced Visible-Light Photocatalytic Performance of SAPO-5-Based g-C3N4 Composite for Rhodamine B (RhB) Degradation

• Published in: Materials 2019-11, Vol.12 (23), p.3948
• Main Authors: Qiu, Lingfang, Zhou, Zhiwei, Ma, Mengfan, Li, Ping, Lu, Jinyong, Hou, Yingying, Chen, Xiangshu, Duo, Shuwang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adsorption; Ammonium chloride; Carbon nitride; Catalytic activity; Experiments; Heterojunctions; Holes (electron deficiencies); Light; Optical properties; Photocatalysis; Photodegradation; Porous materials; Redox reactions; Rhodamine; Spectrum analysis
• ISSN: 1996-1944; 1996-1944
• DOI: 10.3390/ma12233948

Novel visible-light responded aluminosilicophosphate-5 (SAPO-5)/g-C3N4 composite has been easily constructed by thermal polymerization for the mixture of SAPO-5, NH4Cl, and dicyandiamide. The photocatalytic activity of SAPO-5/g-C3N4 is evaluated by degrading RhB (30 mg/L) under visible light illumination (λ > 420 nm). The effects of SAPO-5 incorporation proportion and initial RhB concentration on the photocatalytic performance have been discussed in detail. The optimized SAPO-5/g-C3N4 composite shows promising degradation efficiency which is 40.6% higher than that of pure g-C3N4. The degradation rate improves from 0.007 min−1 to 0.022 min−1, which is a comparable photocatalytic performance compared with other g-C3N4-based heterojunctions for dye degradation. The migration of photo-induced electrons from g-C3N4 to the Al site of SAPO-5 should promote the photo-induced electron-hole pairs separation rate of g-C3N4 efficiently. Furthermore, the redox reactions for RhB degradation occur on the photo-induced holes in the g-C3N4 and Al sites in SAPO-5, respectively. This achievement not only improves the photocatalytic activity of g-C3N4 efficiently, but also broadens the application of SAPOs in the photocatalytic field.