%0 Journal Article
%T In-Situ Fabrication of g-C3N4/ZnO Nanocomposites for Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue: Synthesis Procedure Does Matter
%A Changsheng Su
%A Hang Ren
%A Lei Li
%A Longfeng Zhu
%A Mengli Li
%A Min Wang
%A Shengqiang Zhang
%A Shuang Ge
%A Xuebo Cao
%A Zulei Zhang
%J Archive of "Nanomaterials".
%D 2019
%R 10.3390/nano9020215
%X The nanocomposite preparation procedure plays an important role in achieving a well-established heterostructured junction, and hence, an optimized photocatalytic activity. In this study, a series of g-C3N4/ZnO nanocomposites were prepared through two distinct procedures of a low-cost, environmentally-friendly, in-situ fabrication process, with urea and zinc acetate being the only precursor materials. The physicochemical properties of synthesized g-C3N4/ZnO composites were mainly characterized by XRD, UV¨CVIS diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), N2 adsorption-desorption, FTIR, TEM, and SEM. These nanocomposites¡¯ photocatalytic properties were evaluated in methylene blue (MB) dye photodecomposition under UV and sunlight irradiation. Interestingly, compared with ZnO nanorods, g-C3N4/ZnO nanocomposites (x:1, obtained from urea and ZnO nanorods) exhibited weak photocatalytic activity likely due to a ¡°shading effect¡±, while nanocomposites (x:1 CN, made from g-C3N4 and zinc acetate) showed enhanced photocatalytic activity that can be ascribed to the effective establishment of heterojunctions. A kinetics study showed that a maximum reaction rate constant of 0.1862 min-1 can be achieved under solar light illumination, which is two times higher than that of bare ZnO nanorods. The photocatalytic mechanism was revealed by determining reactive species through adding a series of scavengers. It suggested that reactive ¡ñO2£¿ and h+ radicals played a major role in promoting dye photodegradation
%K ZnO nanorods
%K dye photodegradation
%K graphitic carbon nitride
%K nanocomposites
%K in situ synthesis
%U https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6409917/