A biochar-promoted V2O5/g-C3N4 Z-Scheme heterostructure for enhanced simulated solar light-driven photocatalytic activity

Ya-Ni Zang; Shan-Shan Yang; Jie Ding; Shuang-Yang Zhao; Cheng-Xin Chen; Lei He; Nan-Qi Ren

doi:10.1039/d1ra02712c

A biochar-promoted V₂O₅/g-C₃N₄ Z-Scheme heterostructure for enhanced simulated solar light-driven photocatalytic activity

RSC Adv. 2021 Apr 22;11(25):15106-15117. doi: 10.1039/d1ra02712c. eCollection 2021 Apr 21.

Authors

Ya-Ni Zang¹, Shan-Shan Yang¹, Jie Ding¹, Shuang-Yang Zhao¹, Cheng-Xin Chen¹, Lei He¹, Nan-Qi Ren¹

Affiliation

¹ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology Harbin 150090 China shanshanyang@hit.edu.cn dingjie123@hit.edu.cn.

Abstract

A ternary biochar/vanadium pentoxide/graphite like carbon nitride (BC/V₂O₅/g-C₃N₄ denoted BC/VO/CN) composite was prepared by a simple hydrothermal method and its photocatalytic performance was investigated under simulated solar irradiation. The BC/VO/CN was characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Within the BC/VO/CN composites VO nanoparticles were highly crystalline and intertwined with the lamellas of CN, resulting in the formation of well-defined Z-type heterostructures. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated using Rhodamine B as a model pollutant. Under simulated solar (230-780 nm) irradiation the as-prepared BC/VO/CN hybrid materials demonstrated highly improved photocatalytic activity compared to CN, VO and VO/CN. The cause of the solar enhancement could be ascribed to the formation of Z-type heterojunctions between VO and CN, which promoted faster electron-hole separation and more efficient charge transfer. BC, as an electron transfer medium, accelerated the transfer of photogenerated charge carriers and inhibited their recombination.