g-C3N4/Ca2Fe2O5 heterostructures for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of organic effluents under sunlight
Durga Sankar Vavilapalli, Rajagopal Peri, R. K. Sharma, U. K. Goutam, B. Muthuraaman, M. S. Ramachandra Rao, Shubra Singh
Abstract
Abstract g-C 3 N 4 /Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 heterostructures were successfully prepared by incorporating g-C 3 N 4 into Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 (CFO). As prepared g-C 3 N 4 /CFO heterostructures were initially utilized to photodegrade organic effluent Methylene blue (MB) for optimization of photodegradation performance. 50% g-C 3 N 4 content in CFO composition showed an enhanced photodegradation efficiency (~ 96%) over g-C 3 N 4 (48.15%) and CFO (81.9%) due to mitigation of recombination of photogenerated charge carriers by Type-II heterojunction. The optimized composition of heterostructure was further tested for degradation of Bisphenol-A (BPA) under direct sunlight, exhibiting enhanced photodegradation efficiency of about 63.1% over g-C 3 N 4 (17%) and CFO (45.1%). The photoelectrochemical studies at various potentials with and without light illumination showed significant improvement in photocurrent response for g-C 3 N 4 /Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 heterostructures (~ 1.9 mA) over CFO (~ 67.4 μA). These studies revealed efficient solar energy harvesting ability of g-C 3 N 4 /Ca 2 Fe 2 O 5 heterostructures to be utilized for organic effluent treatment.