Visible light-induced catalytic performance of composite photocatalyst synthesized with nanomaterials WO3 and two-dimensional ultrathin g-C3N4

To improve the visible light-induced catalytic activities of Ultrathin g-C3N4 (UCN), a promising photocatalyst WO3/UCN (WU) was synthesized. Its visible light-driven photocatalysis performance was controllable by adjusting the theoretical mass ratio of WO3/UCN. We have calibrated the optimal preparation conditions to be: WO3/UCN ratio as 1:1, the stirring time of the UCN and sodium tungstate mixture as 9 h and the volume of concentrated hydrochloric acid as 6 mL which was poured into the mixture solution with an extra stirring time of 1.5 h. The optimal photocatalyst WUopt had porous and wrinkled configurations. Its light absorption edge was 524 nm while that of UCN was 465 nm. The band gap of WUopt was 2.13 eV, 0.3 eV less than that of UCN. Therefore, the recombination rate of photo-generated electron-hole pairs of WUopt reduced significantly. The removal rate of WUopt on RhB was 97.3%. By contrast, the removal rate of UCN was much lower (53.4%). WUopt retained a high RhB removal rate, it was 5.5% lower than the initial one after being reused for five cycles. The photodegradation mechanism was facilitated through the strong oxidation behaviors from the active free radicals ·O2-, ·OH and h+ generated by WUopt under the visible light irradiation.