Novel visible-light-driven photocatalyst of NiO/Cd/g-C3N4 for enhanced degradation of methylene blue

Novel NiO/Cd/g-C3N4 photocatalysts were synthesized using a green and straightforward microwave-assisted method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis). The ternary NiO/Cd/g-C3N4 nanocomposites were evaluated for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) at room temperature under the visible light irradiation. Experimental results revealed that the weight percent of cadmium had a remarkable effect on the photodegradation efficiency. The NiO/Cd/g-C3N4 (0.1%) sample exhibited superior activity in the degradation reaction. The activity of this nanocomposite was about 4.5 and 3.25 fold higher than those of the pure g-C3N4 and NiO/g-C3N4 samples in the degradation of MB, respectively. The enhanced photocatalytic activity was attributed to the low energy gap, increased absorption capacity of the visible light, and efficient suppression of the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. A detailed photocatalytic mechanism over the nanocomposite of NiO/Cd/g-C3N4 (0.1%) was proposed with superoxide radical anion O2– as the main reactive species. The stability of the nanocomposite was confirmed after four consecutive runs as well.