Photo-induced CO2 cycloaddition and tetracycline degradation over novel FeOx modified defective graphitic carbon nitride composite

Utilizing sunlight to achieve CO2 conversion and environmental remediation has been a key focus. Herein, "all-in-one" graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) composite-based photocatalysts were synthesized by a simple one-step low-temperature calcination. Lower calcination temperature resulted in defective g-C3N4 enriched in cyano and hydroxyl groups. It was found that by incorporating amorphous FeOX, the resulted FeOX/O-g-C3N4 photocatalyst shows very good performance towards both CO2 cycloaddition reaction and photo-Fenton degradation of tetracycline (TC). It was also found that the photocatalyst shows the highest styrene carbonate yield of 83% (23 mmol g−1 h−1) under ambient conditions, which is 13.8 times higher than that obtained over pure g-C3N4. The photocatalyst also exhibits a 4.7 times faster TC removal rate than that of pure g-C3N4. Systematic characterization and mechanism study demonstrate the role of defects and photo-induced charge carriers.