Facile ball-milling synthesis of WO3/g-C3N4 heterojunction for photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B

Novel Z-scheme WO3/g-C3N4 heterojunction was prepared by hydrothermal method combining ball milling. The degradation of Rhodamine B dye was used to evaluate the photocatalytic activity. The results showed that WO3/g-C3N4 composites synthesized by ball milling method exhibited the highest degradation efficiency of 95.5% than pure WO3 (7.4%), bulk g-C3N4 (45.6%) and other WO3/g-C3N4 composites (53.0%). The enhancement of the photocatalytic activity may be attributed to the higher specific surface area caused by ball milling and the formation of the Z-scheme heterojunction between g-C3N4 layers and WO3 nanosheets which could promote the separation and transfer of photogenerated electron-hole pairs.

Automated summary

A novel Z-scheme WO3/g-C3N4 heterojunction was prepared using a hydrothermal method combined with ball milling. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by the degradation of Rhodamine B dye. The results showed that the WO3/g-C3N4 composites synthesized by ball milling exhibited the highest degradation efficiency, which could be attributed to the higher specific surface area caused by ball milling and the formation of the Z-scheme heterojunction, promoting the separation and transfer of photogenerated electron-hole pairs.