g-C3N4/Ca2Fe2O5 heterostructures for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of organic effluents under sunlight

g-C3N4/Ca2Fe2O5 heterostructures were successfully prepared by incorporating g-C3N4 into Ca2Fe2O5 (CFO). As prepared g-C3N4/CFO heterostructures were initially utilized to photodegrade organic effluent Methylene blue (MB) for optimization of photodegradation performance. 50% g-C3N4 content in CFO composition showed an enhanced photodegradation efficiency (similar to 96%) over g-C3N4 (48.15%) and CFO (81.9%) due to mitigation of recombination of photogenerated charge carriers by Type-II heterojunction. The optimized composition of heterostructure was further tested for degradation of Bisphenol-A (BPA) under direct sunlight, exhibiting enhanced photodegradation efficiency of about 63.1% over g-C3N4 (17%) and CFO (45.1%). The photoelectrochemical studies at various potentials with and without light illumination showed significant improvement in photocurrent response for g-C3N4/Ca2Fe2O5 heterostructures (similar to 1.9 mA) over CFO (similar to 67.4 mu A). These studies revealed efficient solar energy harvesting ability of g-C3N4/Ca2Fe2O5 heterostructures to be utilized for organic effluent treatment.

Automated summary

The g-C3N4/Ca2Fe2O5 heterostructures exhibited enhanced photodegradation efficiency for both Methylene blue and Bisphenol-A compared to individual g-C3N4 and CFO. Photoelectrochemical studies also showed significant improvement in photocurrent response for the heterostructures, indicating efficient solar energy harvesting ability for organic effluent treatment.