In Situ g‐C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub>@Zno Nanocomposite: One‐Pot Hydrothermal Synthesis and Photocatalytic Performance under Visible Light Irradiation
Thi Lan Anh Luu, Mateus Manuel Neto, Thang Pham Van, Trung Nguyen Ngoc, Tuyet Mai Nguyen Thi, Nguyen Xuan Sang, Cong Tu Nguyen
Abstract
In situ g‐C 3 N 4 @ZnO nanocomposites (with 0, 1, 3, 5, and 7 wt.% of g‐C 3 N 4 in nanocomposite) were synthesized via a one‐pot hydrothermal method using precursors of urea, zinc nitrate hexahydrate, and hexamethylenetetramine. The g‐C 3 N 4 @ZnO nanocomposites were characterized by X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The photocatalyst activity of g‐C 3 N 4 @ZnO nanocomposites was evaluated via methylene blue degradation experiment under visible light irradiation. The g‐C 3 N 4 @ZnO nanocomposites showed an enhancement in photocatalytic activity in comparison to pure ZnO which increased with the g‐C 3 N 4 content (1, 3, 5, and 7 wt.%) in nanocomposites. The photocatalytic activity reached the highest efficiency of 96.8% when the content of g‐C 3 N 4 was 7.0 wt.%. Nanocomposite having 7.0 wt.% of g‐C 3 N 4 also showed good recyclability with degradation efficiency higher than 90% even in the 4 th use. The improvement of photocatalytic activity could be attributed to the adsorption ability and effective separation of electron‐hole pairs between g‐C 3 N 4 and ZnO. This work implies a simple method to in situ prepare the nanocomposite material of g‐C 3 N 4 and semiconductors oxide for photocatalyst applications with high efficiency and good recyclability.