Abstract
Herein, we report a detailed study on creating heterojunction between graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) and bismuth phosphate (BiPO4), enhancing the unpaired free electron mobility. This leads to an accelerated photocatalysis of 2,4-dichlorophenols (2,4-DCPs) under sunlight irradiation. The heterojunction formation was efficaciously conducted via a modest thermal deposition technique. The function of g-C3N4 plays a significant role in generating free electrons under sunlight irradiation. Together, the generated electrons at the g-C3N4 conduction band (CB) are transferred and trapped by the BiPO4 to form active superoxide anion radicals (•O2−). These active radicals will be accountable for the photodegradation of 2,4-DCPs. The synthesized composite characteristics were methodically examined through several chemical and physical studies. Due to the inimitable features of both g-C3N4 and BiPO4, its heterojunction formation, 2.5wt% BiPO4/g-C3N4 achieved complete 2,4-DCP removal (100%) in 90 min under sunlight irradiation. This is due to the presence of g-C3N4 that enhanced electron mobility through the formation of heterojunctions that lengthens the electron-hole pairs’ lifetime and maximizes the entire solar spectrum absorption to generate active electrons at the g-C3N4 conduction band. Thus, this formation significantly draws the attention for future environmental remediation, especially in enhancing the entire solar spectrum’s harvesting.
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Funding
This research was financed by Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman Research Fund, UTARRF (IPSR/RMC/UTARRF/2018-C2/L03), and Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme, FRGS (FRGS/1/2019/TK10/UTAR/02/5).
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Review, methodology, investigation, and writing of original draft: Jit Jang Ng. Resources, methodology, funding acquisition, supervision: Lan Ching Sim. Methodology, resources: Wen-Da Oh. Visualization, validation: Pichiah Saravanan. Visualization, validation: Bo Tan. Supervision, review and editing of original manuscript, funding acquisition, conceptualization, visualization, validation: Kah Hon Leong.
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Ng, J.J., Sim, L.C., Oh, WD. et al. Accelerated sunlight photocatalysis through improved electron mobility between g-C3N4 and BiPO4 nanomaterial. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 86068–86076 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16449-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16449-y