Novel visible light-driven PbMoO4/g-C3N4 hybrid composite with enhanced photocatalytic performance

Novel visible-light-driven PbMoO4/g-C3N4 hybrid composites were synthesized with loadings 0, 20, 50, 80 and 100 wt.% of PbMoO4 by sonochemical method. The PbMoO4/g-C3N4 hybrid composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), photo-luminescence (PL), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the BET method. The photocatalytic activity of the PbMoO4/g-C3N4 hybrid composites were evaluated using ciprofloxacin as pharmaceutical pollutant model. The as-prepared PbMoO4/g-C3N4 (50/50 wt.%) improved the photocatalytic activity than the pure g-C3N4 and PbMoO4 nanoparticles. A photocatalytic mechanism and the kinetics of PbMoO4/g-C3N4 hybrid composites were also proposed. The photoactivity of the PbMoO4/g-C3N4 (50/50 wt.%) hybrid composite was found to increase by 11 times than of the pure g-C3N4. The total organic carbon (TOC) analysis of samples irradiated revealed that mineralization of organic compounds by the action of PbMoO4/C3N4 was feasible in CIP (70%) of simulated sunlight irradiation. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.