A novel visible-light-driven g-C3N4/BiOF0.4Br0.5I0.1 nanocomposite for photodegradation of organic pollutants

This study presents the novel CNS/BiOF0.4Br0.5I0.1 nanocomposite as an excellent photocatalyst for the degradation of anionic and cationic dyes and tetracycline antibiotics. The prepared samples were characterized by various techniques, such as XRD, FESEM, EDX, UV-Vis, DRS, FT-IR, BET, PL, EIS, photocurrent measurements, and Mott-Schottky analysis. Furthermore, the photocatalytic activity of these nanocomposites with a different weight content of BiOF0.4Br0.5I0.1 nanoparticles was evaluated by the degradation of the rhodamine B dyes under visible light illumination. The results showed that the nanocomposite CNS/ BiOF0.4Br0.5I0.1 (15%) provided the highest degradation rate of 94% within 20 min of irradiation time, which was 43.67 and 19.47 times higher than pure CN and CNS samples, respectively. To further investigate the applicability of prepared nanocomposites, the photodegradation of tetracycline antibiotics and cationic and anionic dyes such as methylene blue, malachite green, and Congo red were also studied. The results showed that all the above dye pollutants wholly degraded within 20 min. The synthesized nanocomposite photodegraded 92.6% of the tetracycline antibiotics within 60 min under visible light irradiation. Scavenger experiments have shown that positive holes play a significant role in photocatalytic reactions. The above binary photocatalyst showed recycling stability after four consecutive reaction cycles. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis results show that the synthesized CNS/BiOF0.4Br0.5I0.1 (15%) nanocomposites show better electron-hole separation than pure CN and CNS samples. Accordingly, a possible mechanism was suggested based on the results. Hence, this study introduces a novel, fast, recyclable, eco-friendly, and visible-light-driven nano-photocatalysts for environmental applications.

Automated summary

This study presents a novel CNS/BiOF0.4Br0.5I0.1 nanocomposite as an excellent photocatalyst for the degradation of anionic and cationic dyes and tetracycline antibiotics. The nanocomposite exhibited high degradation rates for various pollutants under visible light irradiation and showed better electron-hole separation compared to pure CN and CNS samples. The results suggest that this nano-photocatalyst has great potential for environmental applications.