Superior activity of Cu-NiWO4/g-C3N4 Z direct system for photocatalytic decomposition of VOCs in aerosol under visible light

We successfully used Cu to dope into the NiWO4 crystal to prevent the fast recombination or increase the lifetime of the photo-induced h(+) and e(-) of the material. Then, the synthesized Cu-NiWO4 was successfully hybridized with g-C3N4 to form Cu-NiWO4/g-C3N4 direct Z system for novel photocatalytic decomposition of n-hexane under vis-light. In the formed Cu-NiWO4/g-C3N4 Z direct system, photoinduced e(-) in Cu-NiWO4 CB associated with photo-induced h(+) in g-C3N4 VB maintaining e(-) in g-C3N4 CB and h(+) in Cu-NiWO4 VB, thereby synthesized photocatalysts formed abundant available e(-) and h(+) amounts even excited by vis-light and the formed e(-) and h(+) pairs exhibit suitable redox potentials for reactions with O-2 and H2O, respectively, to produce strong oxidative radicals for advanced photocatalytic degradation of n-hexane. The highest removal efficiency and degradation degree of n-hexane photocatalyzed by Cu-NiWO4/g-C3N4 were 96.8 and 96.3%, respectively. The synthesized Cu-NiWO4/g-C3N4 material also demonstrated strongly stability during long time n-hexane removal. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.