Facilitated Photocatalytic Degradation of Rhodamine B over One-Step Synthesized Honeycomb-Like BiFeO3/g-C3N4 Catalyst

In the present work, a facile one-step methodology was used to synthesize honeycomb-like BiFeO3/g-C3N4 composites, where the well-dispersed BiFeO3 strongly interacted with the hg-C3N4. The 10BiFeO(3)/hg-C3N4 could completely degrade RhB under visible light illumination within 60 min. The degradation rate constant was remarkably improved and approximately three times and seven times that of pristine hg-C3N4 and BiFeO3, respectively. This is ascribed to the following factors: (1) the unique honeycomb-like morphology facilitates the diffusion of the reactants and effectively improves the utilization of light energy by multiple reflections of light; (2) the charged dye molecules can be tightly bound to the spontaneous polarized BiFeO3 surface to form the Stern layer; (3) the Z-scheme heterojunction and the ferroelectric synergistically promoted the efficient separation and migration of the photogenerated charges. This method can synchronously tune the micro-nano structure, surface property, and internal field construction for g-C3N4-based photocatalysts, exhibiting outstanding potential in environmental purification.

Automated summary

In this study, honeycomb-like BiFeO3/g-C3N4 composites were synthesized using a facile method and showed high efficiency in degrading organic dyes under visible light illumination. The unique honeycomb morphology, charged molecule binding, and synergistic effect of Z-scheme heterojunction and ferroelectricity significantly enhanced the photocatalytic performance, which holds great potential for environmental purification.