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Enhanced photocatalytic activity of direct Z-scheme Bi2O3/g-C3N4 composites via facile one-step fabrication

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2018

Shuilian Liu
Affiliation:
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha 410111, People’s Republic of China
Jianlin Chen*
Affiliation:
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha 410111, People’s Republic of China
Difa Xu*
Affiliation:
Hunan Key Laboratory of Applied Environmental Photocatalysis, Changsha University, Changsha 410022, People’s Republic of China
Xiangchao Zhang
Affiliation:
Hunan Key Laboratory of Applied Environmental Photocatalysis, Changsha University, Changsha 410022, People’s Republic of China
Mengyao Shen
Affiliation:
Hunan Key Laboratory of Applied Environmental Photocatalysis, Changsha University, Changsha 410022, People’s Republic of China
*
a)Address all correspondence to these authors. e-mail: cjlinhunu@csust.edu.cn
b)e-mail: xudifa@sina.com
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Abstract

Coupling oxidation type semiconductors is a feasible strategy to improve the photocatalytic activity of reduction type g-C3N4 photocatalysts. In this work, Bi2O3 was used as an oxidation type semiconductor to construct direct Z-scheme Bi2O3/g-C3N4 photocatalysts by a one-step calcination method. The obtained Bi2O3/g-C3N4 composites exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity and stability toward methylene blue degradation under visible light irradiation. The composite with 1% weight content of Bi2O3 to g-C3N4 exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity with an apparent rate constant of 0.063 min−1, which was 3.0 and 3.7 times higher than that of pure Bi2O3 and g-C3N4, respectively. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of the Bi2O3/g-C3N4 composite was mainly attributed to the improved charge separation efficiency and stronger redox ability. This work gave a new insight in developing g-C3N4-based Z-scheme heterojunction photocatalysts with enhanced photocatalytic activity.

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Article
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Copyright © Materials Research Society 2018 

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References

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