Synthesis and photocatalytic properties of Fe2O3/g-C3N4 nanocomposite powder

Water scarcity is a massive issue faced by the world which deteriorates the quality of living of all living beings. Rapid industrialization causes the discharge of various hazardous compounds including but not limited to heavy metals, pesticides, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, and dyes. It is important to remove dyes from wastewater before it is discharged into the environment because dyes can have a number of negative environmental and health impacts. Photocatalysis is a promising solution for wastewater treatment due to its many advantages. It is a green technology that uses light energy to degrade pollutants in water. Dye pollutants are a type of organic pollutant that is commonly used in the textile industry. Photocatalytic degradation is a promising method for removing dyes from wastewater. In this research, the Fe2O3/g C3N4 nanocomposite photocatalyst was prepared using the co-precipitation method. This method involves mixing the precursors of Fe2O3 and g-C3N4 in an aqueous solution and then adding a precipitating agent. The precipitating agent causes the precursors to precipitate out of the solution, forming the Fe2O3/g-C3N4 composite. Fe2O3 is a wide bandgap semiconductor with a visible light absorption range. This means that it can absorb visible light photons and generate electron-hole pairs. g-C3N4 is also a wide bandgap semiconductor, but it has a slightly smaller bandgap than Fe2O3. This means that g-C3N4 can absorb visible light photons that Fe2O3 cannot. The photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). To acquire more insight into the chemical environment and functional groups of the samples, FT-IR analysis was recorded. The appeared peaks for bare g-C3N4 are correlated with the typical stretching vibration of C-N heterocycles. The Fe2O3/10% g-C3N4 nanocomposite was verified to be robust with a significantly high photocatalytic International Biennial Conference on Ultrafine Grained and Nanostructured Materials UFGNSM|2023 ORGANIZER: -School of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran -School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Özyeğin University ▪ EB: : https://ufgnsm2023.ut.ac.ir ▪ TEL: +98 9046387835 | +98 21 61114149 ▪ MAIL: UFGNSM2023@UT.AC.IR efficiency of 85% for methylene blue (MB) in 180 min under 400 W visible-light exposure. This was favorably higher than pure g-C3N4 and pure Fe2O3. According to the SEM results, it was shown that the graphitic carbon nitride nanosheet was formed and the iron oxide took a spherical shape on it, which improved the photocatalytic activity compared to the pure carbon nitride and pure iron oxide samples. The enhanced photocatalytic efficiency was attributed to the following factors. The Fe2O3/g-C3N4 nanocomposite had a wider visible light absorption range than pure g-C3N4 and pure Fe2O3. This meant that the Fe2O3/g-C3N4 nanocomposite could absorb more light energy and generate more electron-hole pairs. Also, the Fe2O3/g-C3N4 nanocomposite had a higher surface area than pure g-C3N4 and pure Fe2O3. This meant that the Fe2O3/g-C3N4 nanocomposite had more active sites for the degradation of pollutants and the Fe2O3/g-C3N4 composite had a stronger redox ability than pure g-C3N4 and pure Fe2O3. This meant that the Fe2O3/g-C3N4 composite was more efficient at oxidizing pollutants.