Improved Visible-Light Photocatalytic Activity of g-C3N4/CuWO4 Nanocomposite for Degradation of Methylene Blue

Abstract

In recent years, heterogeneous semiconductor photocatalysts have attracted great attention in the arena of environmental remediation and solar energy conversion; because, sunlight energy is a renewable, cheap, and accessible source of energy and also converting solar energy to chemical energy can be declined the energy crisis and global warming. Development of visible light heterogeneous photocatalysts with high efficiency and chemical stability is important for catalysis researchers. Among different types of semiconductor material, polymeric graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) with a medium band gap of about 2.7 eV has been widely applied in photodegradation of organic pollutants, water splitting, CO2 reduction, solar cells, energy storage, and organic synthesis. Unfortunately, due to the high rate recombination of photoinduced carriers, the photocatalytic performance of the bare g-C3N4 is still poor. Hence, many strategies including metal doping, noble metal deposition, and coupling with semiconductor composites have been employed to modify g-C3N4. Herein, we report the synthesis of g-C3N4/CuWO4 nanocomposite via a hydrothermal process. The prepared visible-light-driven nanocomposite exhibited an enhanced photocatalytic activity compared with bare g-C3N4 for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under LED light irradiation.