In this study, a novel g-C3N4-based ternary heterojunction was rationally designed and constructed by the in situ growth of ZnIn2S4 nanosheets and CdS nanoparticles onto the g-C3N4 nanosheets using a facile two-step oil-bath method. Through optimizing the proportion of ZnIn2S4 and CdS component, g-C3N4 nanosheets coupled with ZnIn2S4 nanosheets and CdS nanoparticles (denoted as CdS/ZnIn2S4/g-C3N4) exhibited obviously higher photocatalytic properties for RhB removal than the single-component and dual-component systems. Among the as-obtained ternary photocatalysts, it was found that the ternary CdS/ZnIn2S4/g-C3N4-0.2 photocatalyst displayed the optimum photocatalytic property (96%) within a short time (30 min), which was almost 27.42 and 1.17 times higher than that of pure g-C3N4 and binary ZnIn2S4/g-C3N4-0.7 composite. The excellent activity of the ternary CdS/ZnIn2S4/g-C3N4 heterostructure is assigned to the synergetic effects of CdS nanoparticles, ZnIn2S4 nanosheets and g-C3N4 nanosheets, which not only broaden the visible-light absorption range, but also improve the charge mobility and separation rate, thus boosting the visible-light-driven photocatalytic property of g-C3N4.
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