g-C₃N₄/CeO₂ Binary Composite Prepared and Its Application in Automobile Exhaust Degradation

• Main Authors: Shengchao Cui, Baowen Xie, Rui Li, Jianzhong Pei, Yefei Tian, Jiupeng Zhang, Xiangyang Xing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-03-01
• Series: Materials
• Subjects: g-c₃n₄/ceo₂; exhaust gas; degradation efficiency; photocatalytic material; heterojunctions
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/13/6/1274

Vehicle exhaust seriously pollutes urban air and harms human health. Photocatalytic technology can effectively degrade automobile exhaust. This work prepared g-C₃N₄/CeO₂ photocatalytic material by constructing heterojunctions. Four kinds of g-C₃N₄/CeO₂ composite photocatalytic materials with different mass ratios were prepared. An indoor exhaust gas purification test was carried out under natural light and ultraviolet light irradiations. The optimum mass ratio of g-C₃N₄ material and CeO₂ material was determined by evaluating the exhaust gas degradation effective. Moreover, the structure and morphology of the g-C₃N₄/CeO₂ composite were investigated with microscopic characterization experiments (including XRD, TG-DSC, FT-IR, UV-Vis, SEM and XPS). The results obtained were that the optimum mass ratio of g-C₃N₄ material to CeO₂ material was 0.75. The degradation efficiencies under ultraviolet irradiation in 60 min for HC, CO, CO₂, NO_X were 7.59%, 12.10%, 8.25% and 36.82%, respectively. Under visible light conditions, the degradation efficiency in 60 min for HC, CO, CO₂ and NO_X were 15.88%, 16.22%, 10.45% and 40.58%, respectively. This work is useful for purifying automobile exhaust in the future.