A rational design of g-C3N4-based ternary composite for highly efficient H2 generation and 2,4-DCP degradation

Muhammad Humayun; Wenbo Pi; Yang Yuan; Lang Shu; Junhao Cao; Abbas Khan; Zhiping Zheng; Qiuyun Fu; Yahui Tian; Wei Luo

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2021.04.049

A rational design of g-C₃N₄-based ternary composite for highly efficient H₂ generation and 2,4-DCP degradation

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2021 Oct:599:484-496. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.04.049. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Authors

Muhammad Humayun¹, Wenbo Pi², Yang Yuan², Lang Shu², Junhao Cao², Abbas Khan³, Zhiping Zheng², Qiuyun Fu², Yahui Tian⁴, Wei Luo⁵

Affiliations

¹ Engineering Research Center for Functional Ceramics of the Ministry of Education, School of Optical and Electronic Information, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, PR China; Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, PR China.
² Engineering Research Center for Functional Ceramics of the Ministry of Education, School of Optical and Electronic Information, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, PR China.
³ Department of Chemistry, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mardan 23200, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
⁴ Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China. Electronic address: tianyahui@mail.ioa.ac.cn.
⁵ Engineering Research Center for Functional Ceramics of the Ministry of Education, School of Optical and Electronic Information, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, PR China; Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, PR China. Electronic address: luowei@mail.hust.edu.cn.

PMID: 33964694
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.04.049

Abstract

In this work, g-C₃N₄ based ternary composite (CeO₂/CN/NH₂-MIL-101(Fe)) has been fabricated via hydrothermal and wet-chemical methods. The composite showed superior photoactivities for H₂O reduction to produce H₂ and 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) degradation. The amount of H₂ evolved over the composite under visible and UV-visible irradiations is 147.4 µmol·g^-1·h^-1 and 556.2 µmol·g^-1·h^-1, respectively. Further, the photocatalyst degraded 87% of 2,4-DCP in 2 hrs under visible light irradiations. The improved photoactivities are accredited to the synergistic-effects caused by the proper band alignment with close interfacial contact of the three components that significantly promoted charge transfer and separation. The 2,4-DCP degradation over the composite is dominated by OH radical rather than h⁺ and O₂^- as investigated by scavenger trapping experiments. This is further supported by the electron para-magnetic resonance (EPR) study. This work provides new directions for the development of g-C₃N₄ based highly efficient ternary composite materials for clean energy generation and pollution control.

Keywords: 2,4-DCP; H(2) production; Hydrothermal; Ternary composite; Wet-chemical.