Fabrication of S-scheme CdS-g-C3N4-graphene aerogel heterojunction for enhanced visible light driven photocatalysis

Constructing S-scheme heterojunction photocatalysts reveals a greatly improved separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers and enhanced harvesting ability of solar energy in photocatalytic field. Herein, a ternary CdS-g-C3N4-GA heterojunction has been fabricated by a facile ultrasound strategy, which behaved as a S-scheme heterojunction with an intimate interface formed, and GA played as an electronic transportation platform to promote the separation of photo-induced charge carriers, which was certified through photoelectrochemical techniques. Density functional theory calculations revealed that the different component in ternary CdS-g-C3N4-GA heterojunction demonstrated an obvious difference of work function, resulting in the charge transfer from CdS to g-C3N4 through GA with S-scheme principle. In the optimized conditions, the S-scheme CdS-g-C3N4-GA heterojunction not only displayed greatly enhanced photocatalytic performances for degradation of dye and antibiotic wastewater, but also improved photocatalytic H2 production activity. In addition, the photocatalytic mechanism and driving force of charge transfer and separation in S-scheme CdS-g-C3N4-GA heterojunction were studied. This study offers a feasible strategy to construct a ternary S-scheme heterojunction for environmental and energy photocatalysis.