Investigation of heterojunction between α-Fe2O3/V2O5 and g-C3N4 ternary nanocomposites for upgraded photo-degradation performance of mixed pollutants: Efficient dual Z-scheme mechanism

In this present work, a g-C3N4 decorated dual Z-scheme alpha-Fe2O3 and V2O5 heterojunction of magnetically recoverable GFV (g-C3N4/alpha-Fe2O3/V2O5) composite was rationally synthesized using facile calcination and hydrothermal approach. The crystal structure, surface morphology, chemical composition and optical properties of the as-obtained composite photocatalysts (PCs) were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurement, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) and photoluminescence (PL) analyses respectively. Benefiting from these structural and compositional features, the optimum GFV heterostructured PCs sample revealed that the superior photo-degradation performance of methyl yellow (MY) and methylene blue (MB) mixed dye under visible-light, while the degradation rates were 93.4% for MY and 87.5% for MB dye at 90 min, respectively. Moreover, the enhanced photo-degradation performance of GFV composite PCs displayed an extended visible-light fascination due to lower bandgap, reduced recombination rates, high charge separation and good charge transfer capacity with the efficient dual Z-scheme heterojunction. Meanwhile, high photo-degradation stability is continued after five successive reusability tests. A possible photo-degradation mechanism of dual Z-scheme charge transfer paths was also been proposed. This study is also capable of emerging visible-light active facile heterojunction photocatalysts for various organic pollutants removal with great efficiency. (C) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.