Partially oxidized MXenes-derived C-TiO2/Ti3C2 coupled with Fe-C3N4 as a ternary Z-scheme heterojunction: Enhanced photothermal and photo-Fenton performance

Photo-Fenton reaction combining the photocatalytic reaction and Fenton reaction showed excellent degradation performance. However, it highly demanded the catalysts to display outstanding activity in these two reactions. Herein, Fe-doped carbon nitride/MXenes-derived C-TiO2/Ti3C2 (Fe-C3N4/Ti3C2/C-TiO2) was prepared via two steps: Fe-C3N4 and Ti3C2 were assembled via face-to-face attachment, following by in-situ partial oxidation of Ti3C2 to C-TiO2. DFT predicted a Z-scheme charge transfer routine via metallic Ti3C2 as bridge, which was verified by EPR and radical trapping experiments. Additionally, PDOS calculation revealed the charge density around the doped-Fe atoms was remarkably increased, leading to better H2O2 activation, which was experimentally confirmed by high yield of •OH. Moreover, Fe-C3N4/Ti3C2/C-TiO2 possessed the high photothermal effect to accelerate the surface reaction. By taking advantage of these merits, the degradation rate of Fe-C3N4/Ti3C2/C-TiO2 was at least 4.2 times higher than the reference catalysts. Our work provided an insight toward the g-C3N4/TiO2-based photo-Fenton catalysts with high performance.