Facile construction of CuFe2O4/p-g-C3N4 p-n heterojunction with boosted photocatalytic activity and sustainability for organic degradation reactions under visible-light

Concerns about environmental pollution are at their peak, and industrial dyes and food adulteration have become common issues. In this regard, the degradation of pollutants using novel photocatalytic materials has always been a keen research interest. We prepared P-doped g-C3N4 (PCN) by thermal polymerization using triphenylphosphine and dicyandiamide precursors in this work. Meanwhile, the CuFe2O4 (CFO) was prepared through a hydrothermal synthesis route, and the entire composite (CFO/PCN) was prepared using the wet-impregnation technique. The physicochemical properties of the synthesized PCN and CFO/PCN nanocomposites were determined by XRD, FE-SEM, FTIR and XPS analysis. Herein, we put forward a new approach, with an environment-friendly and controllable way to design and synthesize the highly effective CFO/PCN for environmental remediation applications through this work, which significantly boosted photocatalytic activity for the elimination of CR as compared to pristine materials. The as-prepared 30% CFO/PCN shows higher rate constant (4.1 × 10−2 min−1), which is 3.5, and 2.8 times higher than PCN (1.15 × 10−2 min−1), CFO (1.44 × 10−2 min−1). Photo-oxidation of CR over 30% CFO/PCN resulted in 98.3% degradation within 90 min. Photoluminescence studies of the as-prepared composites showed that 30% CFO/PCN had the lowest charge recombination rate among the as-prepared composites. Thus, this work demonstrates a synthesis of low-cost and robust CuFe2O4/P-g-C3N4 p-n heterostructure composite for environmental remediation applications.