H2O2-free photo-Fenton degradation of organic pollutants on thermally exfoliated g-C3N4

A H2O2-free photo-Fenton reaction was proposed for degradation of organic pollutants on thermally exfoliated gC(3)N(4) using Rhodamine B (RhB) as a model organic compounds without external addition of H2O2. Compared with conventional photocatalytic degradation of RhB in absence of ferric ions, the photo-Fenton process exhibited accelerated speed and the remove efficiency reached (similar to)100% within 2 h. More importantly, the kinetics of photo-Fenton reaction is different from that of photocatalytic process. The photo-Fenton degradation conforms to pseudo-first-order kinetics while the photocatalytic reaction conforms to pseudo-zero-order kinetics according to RhB concentration. Based on the results of photoluminescence (PL), electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) and scavenger experiments, detailed mechanism steps were established to give a satisfied explanation for the observed accelerated speed and different kinetics of photo-Fenton degradation of RhB compared with photocatalytic process.