Visible Light-Driven Photocatalytic Performance of N-Doped ZnO/g-C3N4 Nanocomposites

• Main Authors: Ji-Zhou Kong, Hai-Fa Zhai, Wei Zhang, Shan-Shan Wang, Xi-Rui Zhao, Min Li, Hui Li, Ai-Dong Li, Di Wu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2017-09-01
• Series: Nanoscale Research Letters
• Subjects: N-doped ZnO; g-C3N4; Composite; Visible-light irradiation; Photocatalytic degradation
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s11671-017-2297-0
• ISSN: 1931-7573; 1556-276X

Abstract N-doped ZnO/g-C3N4 composites have been successfully prepared via a facile and cost-effective sol-gel method. The nanocomposites were systematically characterized by XRD, FE-SEM, HRTEM, FT-IR, XPS, and UV-vis DRS. The results indicated that compared with the pure N-doped ZnO, the absorption edge of binary N-doped ZnO/g-C3N4 shifted to a lower energy with increasing the visible-light absorption and improving the charge separation efficiency, which would enhance its photocatalytic activity. Compared with the pure g-C3N4, ZnO, N-doped ZnO and the composite ZnO/g-C3N4, the as-prepared N-doped ZnO/g-C3N4 exhibits a greatly enhanced photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue and phenol under visible-light irradiation. Meanwhile, N-doped ZnO/g-C3N4 possesses a high stability. Finally, a proposed mechanism for N-doped ZnO/g-C3N4 is also discussed. The improved photocatalysis can be attributed to the synergistic effect between N-doped ZnO and g-C3N4, including the energy band structure and enhanced charge separation efficiency.