Fe-species-loaded graphitic carbon nitride with enhanced photocatalytic performance under visible-light irradiation

• A novel Fe-species-loaded g-C3N4 catalyst was fabricated via a simple method.
• The effects of the Fe content and pyrolysis temperature were investigated.
• The advantages of an appropriate Fe-species amount and the optimized structure were confirmed.
• The nanohybrid catalyst exhibited significantly enhanced photodegradation activity.

A novel Fe-species-loaded graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) catalyst was fabricated via a simple thermal treatment method in the presence of poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP). XRD, FT-IR, SEM, TEM, XPS and UV–vis DRS technologies were conducted to characterize the crystallinity, structure, morphology, surface state and optical properties of the samples. The nanohybrid catalyst exhibited significantly enhanced photodegradation activity for methylene blue (MB) under visible light irradiation. Notablely, the maximal photocatalytic efficiency was achieved over the sample that pyrolyzed at 600 °C with Fe content of 4%, in which 85.2% of MB was degraded within 2 h. The improvement of the photocatalytic ability may attribute to the enhancement of visible light absorption capacity, response ability, and quantum efficiency. Herein, it has been proved that heterostructured without noble metal merged g-C3N4 may be an excellent photocatalytic material with extended visible light response and enhanced photodegradation ability for pollutant in water.

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