Rational construction of FeOOH/Cl-g-C3N4 heterojunction for inducing Fenton catalysis and boosting visible-light-driven photocatalysis: Enhanced catalytic properties and mechanism insight

Amorphous goethite (FeOOH) has more excellent photocatalytic properties owing to its disordered structure. In this work, the active photocatalyst Cl-CN/Fe heterojunction was constructed by in-situ growth of FeOOH nanoparticles on the spherical surface of chlorine-doped carbon nitride microspheres (Cl-CNMS). The Cl-CN/Fe photocatalyst exhibited efficient photo-Fenton-like degradation activity for tetracycline. The degradation rate (0.02056 min−1) is 21.61 and 2.64 times higher than that of the photocatalytic system (0.00095 min−1) and Fenton-like system (0.00779 min−1). The significantly enhanced catalytic activity is attributed to the synergistic effect between Cl-CNMS photocatalyst and FeOOH Fenton-like catalyst in a photo-Fenton-like system. The carbon nitride microspheres have strong absorption of visible light while acting as a substrate material. Meanwhile the loaded FeOOH acts as the inducer of the photo-Fenton reaction. In addition, the doped chlorine atoms in the Cl-CN/Fe photocatalysts can suppress the recombination of photoinduced electron-hole pairs. The photocatalyst has a high recovery rate and stability based on the spherical structure.