Synthesis of α-Fe 2 O 3 decorated g-C 3 N 4 /ZnO ternary Z-scheme photocatalyst for degradation of tartrazine dye in aqueous media

Sridharan Balu, Sethupathi Velmurugan, Selvakumar Palanisamy*, Shih Wen Chen, Vijayalakshmi Velusamy, Thomas C.K. Yang, El-Said El-Shafey

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

75 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

In this study, we report the synthesis of a novel α-Fe 2 O 3 decorated g-C 3 N 4 /ZnO (g-C 3 N 4 /ZnO@α-Fe 2 O 3 ) ternary Z-scheme photocatalyst for degradation of organic dye. The g-C 3 N 4 /ZnO@α-Fe 2 O 3 ternary nanocomposite was synthesized by using the direct pyrolysis and sol-gel methods. Different physicochemical methods were used to confirm the as-synthesized nanomaterials including Transmission electron microscopy, high-resolution field-emission scanning electron microscopy, Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The as-synthesized different nanocomposite materials were used to investigate the photodegradation of tartrazine (Acid Yellow 23). Photoluminescence spectra revealed that the g-C 3 N 4 /ZnO@α-Fe 2 O 3 ternary nanocomposite has lower recombination rate than pristine g-C 3 N 4 . The as-synthesized nanocomposite showed high photocatalytic activity towards degradation of tartrazine than that of g-C 3 N 4 , ZnO, ZnO@α-Fe 2 O 3 . Also, g-C 3 N 4 /ZnO@α-Fe 2 O 3 nanocomposite can able to degrade 99.34% of tartrazine within 35 min under visible light irradiation. The g-C 3 N 4 /ZnO@α-Fe 2 O 3 nanocomposite has a higher rate constant and excellent cyclic stability towards the photodegradation of tartrazine. The electrochemical impedance spectra results confirmed that the g-C 3 N 4 /ZnO@α-Fe 2 O 3 nanocomposite has faster electron-transfer ability towards the electrode surface than that of g-C 3 N 4, ZnO, and ZnO@α-Fe 2 O 3 composite.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Keywords

  • g-C N ,/ZnO@α-Fe O nanocomposite
  • Photocatalytic degradation
  • Photoelectrochemical activity
  • Ternary nanocomposite
  • Z-scheme photocatalyst, Tartrazine

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Chemistry(all)
  • Chemical Engineering(all)

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