Journal
JOURNAL OF PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF SOLIDS
Volume 162, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpcs.2021.110514
Keywords
g-C3N(4); Ce2O3; CuO; Nanocomposite; Heterostructure; Mixed dye; Photo-degradation
Funding
- Deanship of Scientific Research at King Khalid University [RGP2/137/42]
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A novel ternary g-C3N4/Ce2O3/CuO composite photocatalyst was synthesized successfully, showing superior photocatalytic efficiency and reusability. The catalyst effectively degraded dyes in aqueous solutions under visible light, exhibiting remarkable photodegradation activity.
In this work, a novel ternary g-C3N4/Ce2O3/CuO (GCC) composite photocatalyst was effectively synthesized by facile calcination and dynamic hydrothermal technique. The as-obtained photocatalysts (PCs) samples were characterized using several techniques such as XRD, FT-IR, FESEM-EDAX with mapping, HR-TEM, high-resolution XPS, UV-DRS absorption and PL spectra respectively. The photo-degradation outcomes specified that the ternary GCC composite PCs possessed the better photocatalytic efficiency by degrading for the aqueous MY (94.5%) and MB (90.3%) mixed dye compared to other as-obtained PCs samples within 150 min under visiblelight exposure. Moreover, after the fifth recycles of the superior GCC composite PCs, the photo-degradation rate of MB and MY mixed dyes still could be reached to 81% and 86.5%, respectively, which revealed the excellent reusability and photostability after the five successive recycles. Hence, the improved photo-degradation activity could be ascribed to a lower bandgap, superior visible-light absorption capacity and reduced the recombination rate of photo-excited electron-hole (e-/h+) pairs among the synergistic effects of unique g-C3N4, Ce2O3 and CuO heterointerface in the efficient three-level e-/h+ transfer. Based on the various scavenger's tests, a probable charge transfer pathway with the strong reduction ability process was also proposed. The superior photodegradation efficiency and their probability, which make reusable PCs and a potential aspirant for environmental wastewater purification and energy conversion.
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