Facile synthesis of activated carbon loaded g-C3N4 composite with enhanced photocatalytic performance under visible light

作者：Feng, Peng; Cui, Kangping; Hai, Zibin^*; Wang, Jun; Wang, Lingling^*

来源：Diamond and Related Materials, 2023, 136: 109921.

DOI：10.1016/j.diamond.2023.109921

• Activated carbon
• Visible photocatalysis
• Recycling stability

The fast industrialization and urbanization process has led to the serious water pollution problems that need to be resolved urgently. In this paper, activated carbon/g-C3N4 composite photocatalysts (ACN) were synthesized by a simple calcination technique. The catalysts were examined by SEM, TEM, XRD, FTIR, PL, XPS, and UV-vis DRS. The catalyst ACN exhibited better photocatalytic activity than pure g-C3N4, where ACN3 showed excellent photocatalytic activity of 98.6 %, 98.97 % and 98 % on rhodamine B (RhB), carmine and TC degradation under visible light, respectively. The introduction of activated carbon broadened the absorption range of the catalyst towards visible light, improved the electron transfer efficiency and suppressed the photogenerated electron-hole recombination. After four cycles of experiments, the catalyst ACN3 still showed high activity for the degradation of RhB and carmine. Based on the analytical results, the possible mechanism of photocatalytic degradation was proposed. This work demonstrates a facile and efficient method to improve the performance of g-C3N4-based catalysts.