Excellent Photocatalytic Efficiency of t-ZrO2/g-C3N4 Photocatalyst for Pollutants Degradation: Experiment and theory

The large work function difference between two semiconductors will effectively adjust the interfacial electronic distribution and catalytic performances of heterojunction. In this work, a novel t-ZrO2/g-C3N4 composite photocatalyst was prepared by integrating t-ZrO2 nanoparticle with graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) film considering the large work function of tetragonal ZrO2 (t-ZrO2). With the aid of experimental measurements and density functional theory calculations, the electronic distributions of g-C3N4 film were explicitly adjusted by the supporting t-ZrO2 nanoparticle on account of the large interfacial internal electric field, which leaded to the improvement of photogenerated carriers mobility and lifetime, the enhancement of reduction ability and the increase of oxidation active sites. Results showed that the photocatalytic activity of the composite sample was increased by 9.4 and 2.9 times compared with g-C3N4 sample for Rhodamine B and tetracycline hydrochloride degradation under visible-light. This modification strategy shall be applied to devise other high-efficient catalysts by selecting semiconductor with suitable work function.