One-step preparation of well-dispersed spindle-like Fe2O3 nanoparticles on g-C3N4 as highly efficient photocatalysts

ShuYao Xiong; XinHui Liu; XianJian Zhu; Gang Liang; ZhuoJun Jiang; BaoShan Cui; JunHong Bai

doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2020.111519

One-step preparation of well-dispersed spindle-like Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles on g-C₃N₄ as highly efficient photocatalysts

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2021 Jan 15:208:111519. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2020.111519. Epub 2020 Oct 26.

Authors

ShuYao Xiong¹, XinHui Liu², XianJian Zhu¹, Gang Liang³, ZhuoJun Jiang¹, BaoShan Cui¹, JunHong Bai¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China.
² State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China; Research and Development Center for Watershed Environmental Eco-Engineering, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai 519087, PR China. Electronic address: xhliu@bnu.edu.cn.
³ Beijing Research Center for Agricultural Standards and Testing, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, PR China.

PMID: 33120257
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2020.111519

Abstract

Photocatalysis has attracted wide attention due to its outstanding advantages in dealing with sewage. And compounds of metal oxides and g-C₃N₄ that possess Z-type heterojunctions have become the star photocatalysts in degrading pollutants. In this paper, a novel one-step method for the preparation of highly efficient photocatalyst of Fe₂O₃/g-C₃N₄, using Fe (NO₃)₃ and urea as raw materials, is described. Under the optimized condition, the one-step synthesized photocatalyst of FeGCN-0.10 showed higher photocatalytic performance compared with the multi-step prepared photocatalyst, and the rate of removing basic fuchsin was 92% (210 min), which was 19.5% higher than that of the latter. Furthermore, different methods were also applied for characterizing Fe₂O₃/g-C₃N_4. Structural characterization results confirmed the composites of Fe₂O₃/g-C₃N₄. Morphological characterization results showed that spindle-like Fe₂O₃ particles were distributed more evenly on the layered g-C₃N₄ compared with the impregnation method. Optical characterization results demonstrated the high intensity of the separated photo-generated electron-hole pairs and of Fe₂O₃/g-C₃N₄, which uncovered the removing mechanism of basic fuchsin.

Keywords: Fe(2)O(3)/g-C(3)N(4); Nanophotocatalyst; One-step synthesis; Z-type heterojunction.

MeSH terms

Catalysis
Environmental Pollutants*
Light
Nanoparticles*
Oxides
Photochemical Processes*

Substances

Environmental Pollutants
Oxides