Carbon Dot Loaded Integrative CoFe <sub>2</sub> O <sub>4</sub> /g‐C <sub>3</sub> N <sub>4</sub> P‐N Heterojunction: Direct Solar Light‐Driven Photocatalytic H <sub>2</sub> Evolution and Organic Pollutant Degradation
Mathiazhagan Lallimathi, Periyathambi Kalisamy, Mathiazhagan Suryamathi, Thamraa Alshahrani, Mohd. Shkir, Munusamy Venkatachalam, Baskaran Palanivel
Abstract
Abstract In this report, the novel carbon dot (CD) loaded CoFe 2 O 4 /g‐C 3 N 4 p‐n heterojunction for photocatalytic H 2 evolution and tetracycline (TCN) degradation under sunlight irradiation has been proposed. The wet chemical method was used to prepare the photocatalysts. The heterojunction formation between the CoFe 2 O 4 and g‐C 3 N 4 facilitates to improve the solar light absorption ability which was confirmed by UV‐vis‐diffused reflectance spectroscopy. Moreover, the CD loading improves the charge carrier's separation. Comparison with the pure and binary nanocomposite photocatalysts, the CD loaded ternary heterojunction photocatalyst exhibits the greater photocatalytic performance with high H 2 production (2715 μmol/g) and TCN degradation (95 %) under sun‐light irradiation. Moreover, the recycling process shows the excellent stability nature of ternary composite photocatalyst. The probable photocatalytic mechanism and the main active radicals for the degradation process were well defined with the help of elemental trapping experiment.