Pompon-like structured g-C3N4/ZnO composites and their application in visible light photocatalysis

In this work, pompon-like structured g-C3N4/ZnO composite photocatalyst was fabricated by a two-step method and characterized through different characterization tools to determine the photophysical properties. It is discovered that the synthesized pompon-like g-C3N4/ZnO photocatalyst is composed of flake g-C3N4 coated on the pompon surface of ZnO to form a heterojunction structure. In the composite photocatalyst, the pompon ZnO has large surface area (41.81 m2/g) which can provide more reactive sites for composite catalysts, the g-C3N4 can absorb the visible light which can effectively expand the absorption range of the composite, and the heterostructure formed between g-C3N4 and pompon ZnO can effectively reduce the coincidence efficiency of photo-generated carriers. The photocatalytic performance of pompon-like g-C3N4/ZnO photocatalyst was evaluated by photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) organic dyes under simulated solar light irradiation and the optimum doping amount of g-C3N4 is 10%. The stability of the composite photocatalyst was tested by five runs of RhB photodegradation under simulated visible light.