Resumen
Excessive discharge of toxic chemicals such as phenolic compounds emanated from the industry appends the existing problem of water scarcity issue. Hence, engineering photocatalytic material remain crucial in finding new ways to combat the challenge of water pollution through photocatalytic pollutants degradation. Among these photocatalyst, graphitic carbon nitride, g-C3N4 had emerged as a promising materials of interest in photocatalytic application due to its appealing characteristic such as excellent optical properties and high physicochemical and thermal stability. Thus, this research work was focused on the technology utilization of g-C3N4 based photocatalyst to tackle the current limitation of wastewater treatment application. The applicability of g-C3N4 based photocatalyst towards the photocatalytic degradation of phenol under visible light irradiation was investigated via a development of a noble g-C3N4/CNT/ BiVO4 Z-scheme heterostructure which was synthesized by using wet-impregnation method. The physicochemical properties of the as-developed photocatalyst were characterized using FTIR, XRD, FESEM, XPS, SAP and DR-UV Vis. The formation of Z-scheme heterostructure g-C3N4/CNT/BiVO4 photocatalyst resulted in significant enhancement in the photocatalytic performance, with the binary hybrid showing almost four time faster degradation rate and ternary composite almost six times of that pristine g-C3N4. Specifically, the g-C3N4/CNT/ BiVO4 Z-scheme heterostructure exhibit the highest photocatalytic activity, degrading 80.84% of the phenol in 150 minutes compared to pristine g-C3N4. Enhanced photocatalytic degradation performance of the heterostructure was ascribed to the formation of z- scheme heterostructure that allow multi charge transfer between the heterojunction, the effect of electron-bridge mediator which led to effective separation of photogenerated charge carriers, enhanced light absorption properties and larger specific surface area. Additionally, the synergistic effect of CNT dosage and electron scavenger loading towards the photocatalytic performance of the ternary heterostructure photocatalyst suggest optimum reaction condition at 2 wt% CNT dosage and 5 v/v% scavenger loading. A possible mechanism route for phenol degradation had been proposed, and it was found out that the system obey the Pseudo-First order kinetic and Temkin isotherm. The demonstrated work are believed to bridge the research gap associated with engineering photocatalytic technology.