Enhanced the Efficiency of Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue by Construction of Z-Scheme g-C3N4/BiVO4 Heterojunction

Both non-metallic g-C3N4 and BiVO4 are novel photocatalysts responsive to visible light, but their low charge separation efficiency restricts their inconspicuous photocatalytic activity. In this paper, direct Z-type g-C3N4/BiVO4 photocatalyst was constructed by calcination and hydrothermal for the degradation of methylene blue. The existence of g-C3N4/BiVO4 heterojunction was confirmed by the detailed study of its chemical structure and morphology by various characterization methods, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The evaluation of photocatalytic performance showed that the MB degradation performance of 1.0-CN/BVO was significantly enhanced, which was 4.528 times and 2.387 times higher than pristine BiVO4 and g-C3N4, respectively, which was mainly due to the enhanced light capture ability and effective electron transfer in the photocatalytic reaction. The 1.0-CN/BVO composite exhibited extremely catalytic stability and recyclability.

Automated summary

Through the construction of Z-type g-C3N4/BiVO4 photocatalyst, the degradation performance of methylene blue was significantly improved due to enhancements in chemical structure, morphology, and electron transfer. This composite material exhibited extremely high catalytic stability and recyclability.