Controlled synthesis of carbon nitride-TiO2 nanocomposites for prompt photocatalytic degradation of individual and mixed organic dyes at room temperature

Development of efficient and low-cost photocatalysts for the degradation of mixed organic dyes in water resources is of great importance in various industrial and environmental applications. Herein, we prepared organic-inorganic nanocomposites including a carbon nitride and TiO2 (0.1CNTi) without and with reduced graphene oxide denoted as 0.1rGOCNTi using the modified hydrothermal method. The TiO2 and composite catalysts 0.1rGOCNTi and CNTi were well characterized previously using FT-IR, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS). The photocatalytic oxidation performances of typically prepared 0.1rGOCNTi and 0.1CNTi nanocomposites were investigated towards methylene blue (MB), Rhodamine B (RhB), and Rhodamine 6G (Rh6G) (individually and mixed) at room temperature under Xe lamp illumination in the presence of H2O2 along with the in situ electrogenerated O3. Interestingly, the degradation percentage of the individual and mixed dye solution on the synthesized nanocomposites reached over 90% within 5 min and 20 min, respectively, with a slight superior activity for 0.1CNTi than 0.1rGOCNTi. The presented study may open new gates for fabrication of CNTi-based nanocomposites for wastewater purification applications.