Facile synthesis of CNS/TNS sensitized with Cu biphenylamine frameworks for remarkable photocatalytic activity for organic pollutants degradation and bacterial inactivation

• Published in: Solar energy Vol. 186; pp. 204 - 214
• Main Authors: Khan, Muhammad Asim, Mutahir, Sadaf, Wang, Fengyun, Zhou, Jin-Wei, Lei, Wu, Xia, Mingzhu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2019; Pergamon Press Inc
• Subjects: Aquatic organisms; Biodegradation; Carbon nitride; Catalytic activity; Cu-biphenylamine; Ddisinfection; Deactivation; E coli; Electrochemistry; Electromagnetic absorption; Energy gap; Environmental degradation; g-C3N4 nanosheets; Heterostructures; Inactivation; Lakes; Morphology; Nanostructure; Photocatalysis; Photodegradation; Pollutants; Recombination; Resveratrol; Solar energy; Surface charge; Ternary heterostructure; TiO2 nanosheets; Titanium dioxide; Trans-resveratrol; Trans-resveratrol; Ternary heterostructure; g-C3N4 nanosheets; Cu-biphenylamine; TiO2 nanosheets; Ddisinfection
• ISSN: 0038-092X; 1471-1257
• DOI: 10.1016/j.solener.2019.04.023

[Display omitted] •g-C3N4 nanosheets and TiO2 nanosheets doped with Cu diphenylamine complexes (x-CNS/TNS/CuBA).•Degradation of trans-resveratrol, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.•Degradation mechanism analysis through ESR, EIS and scavenging tests.•Kinetics studies of the degradation reaction. Graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets (CNS) and TiO2 nanosheets (TNS) doped with Cu biphenylamine (CuBA) complexes (x-CNS/TNS/CuBA). x-CNS/TNS/CuBA ternary heterostructures were successfully synthesized and applied to pollutants. The SEM, EDS and TEM images clearly reflect the sheetlike morphology of CNS and TNS, this morphology is also maintained in finally sensitized samples and sensitized overlapped nanosheets are very obvious in ternary heterostructures. The main peaks of CNS and TNS are also appearing in adopted samples CNS/TNS/Cu-Complex, but these peaks were suppressed by the adsorption of CuBA complex. The altered band gap positions, prolonged charge recombination rate, better surface area, enhance photo-electrochemical results strongly recommended the visible light absorption and definite performance of the samples. The photocatalytic degradation of trans-resveratrol, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, evaluations suggested that 1/0.3-CNS/TNS/CuBA is the best heterostructure with better morphology and the low band gap of 2.615 eV. 1/0.3 CNS/TNS/CuBA showed prominent apparent rate constant amongst all pure and modified photocatalysts, for trans-resveratrol the amount of Kapp is 2.49 × 10−2 min−1, the equivalent half-life value is 27.8 min. 1/0.3-CNS/TNS/CuBA was also applied to real lake water for biological species and in 90 min, it cleared all biological species from the lake water and made it highly suitable for aquatic life.