Construction of a double heterojunction between graphite carbon nitride and anatase TiO 2 with co-exposed (101) and (001) faces for enhanced photocatalytic degradation

• Published in: RSC advances Vol. 12; no. 31; pp. 20206 - 20216
• Main Authors: Sun, Jingjing, Deng, Lang, Sun, Jing, Shen, Tingting, Wang, Xikui, Zhao, Rusong, Zhang, Yiyao, Wang, Baolin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 06.07.2022
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/D2RA01620F

This study aimed to promote the separation of photogenerated carriers and improve the redox performance of graphite carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) by synthesizing a double-heterojunction-structure photocatalyst, g-C 3 N 4 /(101)-(001)-TiO 2 , through the solvothermal method. The photocatalyst comprised a Z-system formed from g-C 3 N 4 and the (101) plane of TiO 2 , as well as a surface heterojunction formed from the (101) and (001) planes of TiO 2 . The results showed that g-C 3 N 4 /(101)-(001)-TiO 2 had strong photocatalytic activity and stable performance in the photodegradation of paracetamol. The active species ·O 2 − and ·OH were found to play important roles in the photocatalytic degradation of paracetamol through a radical-quenching experiment. The charge-transfer mechanism was also described in detail. Overall, this work provided a new strategy for the Z-system heterojunction and opened up the application of this structure in the degradation of organic pollutants.