Visible Light Degradation of 4-Nitrophenol Using Bi2O3/g-C3N4 Photocatalysts

Abstract

Cobalt doped bismuth oxide with graphitic carbon nitride has been synthesized using thermal method. As prepared heterojunction materials were characterized with various techniques such as UV-DRS, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Photoluminiscece (PL) and X-Ray Diaffraction (XRD). The Co-Bi2O3/g-C3N4 heterojunction was tested as a visible light active catalyst for degradation of 4- Nitrophenol. In comparison to pure g-C3N4 and Bi2O3, Co-Bi2O3/g- C3N4 showed better degradation of 4-Nitrophenol. The obtained degradation ability of pure g-C3N4 was only 19 percent, whereas Co-Bi2O3/g-C3N4 improved degradation up to 61 %. The influence of light, catalyst amount and pH on the photocatalytic activity will also be investigated. While testing the catalyst in dark reactions a negligible adsorption of <10% confirms that degradation mainly occursin visible light. This workprovides an example to explore the role of other visible light active photocatalysts for the degradation of organic contaminants in water.