Synthesis of BiOCl/C/g-C3N4 Z-scheme heterojunction: mercury lamp-driven heterojunction for efficient degradation of phenol

• Published in: Research on chemical intermediates Vol. 49; no. 4; pp. 1665 - 1681
• Main Authors: Song, Kai, Chen, Wan-ping, Wang, Run-quan, Zhang, Yue-rong, Tian, Yuan, Li, Jia-xian, Wang, Guo-ying, Shi, Gao-feng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.04.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Carbon nitride; Catalysis; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Current carriers; Electric fields; Heterojunctions; Inorganic Chemistry; Mercury lamps; Photocatalysis; Photocatalysts; Photodegradation; Physical Chemistry; Reaction mechanisms; Phenol; BiOCl; g-C; Biochar; N; Heterojunction
• ISSN: 0922-6168; 1568-5675
• DOI: 10.1007/s11164-023-04979-8

Designing photocatalysts to remove organic pollutants are of great significance in the environmental field. Herein, BiOCl/C/g-C 3 N 4 photocatalyst was synthesized with biochar, BiOCl, and g-C 3 N 4 . Biochar was first used as an electronic medium to accelerate charge carrier separation. Moreover, the formation of the built-in electric field between BiOCl and g-C 3 N 4 interface inhibits the electron–hole recombination during the photocatalytic process. The characterization results show that the Z-scheme heterojunction structure was successfully prepared. The BiOCl (0.5) C (0.03) g-C 3 N 4(0.97) photocatalyst had up to 96.9% degradation of phenol under mercury lamp irradiation. The rate constant of the photodegradation reaction process is 0.38706 h −1 , which is 2.1 times that of pure BiOCl. And photocatalyst has satisfactory stability, which a three-cycle retention rate was 97.6%. In addition, the reaction mechanism was studied, and the photogenerated carrier transferring pathways of BiOCl/C/g-C 3 N 4 Z-scheme photocatalysts were proposed. The photocatalyst offers new ideas for the Z-scheme heterojunction photocatalyst. Graphical Abstract