Construction of direct Z-scheme g-CN/BiYWO heterojunction photocatalyst with enhanced visible light activity towards the degradation of methylene blue.

Construction of the Z-scheme heterojunction photocatalyst achieved highly improved photocatalytic ability by its high redox ability of the photoinduced e-h pairs. In the study, Z-scheme g-CN/BiYWO heterojunction photocatalyst is prepared by the single-step hydrothermal method. Further, its photocatalytic ability was assessed by degrading methylene blue under visible light exposure. Particularly, the optimized 30 wt% of g-CN in the g-CN/BiYWO composite exposes almost complete degradation after 90 min, that is ~ 3.0 times greater than the bare BiYWO and g-CN with the rate constant value 0.032 min. Experimentally, the radical trapping studies indicate O· and ·OH radicals are playing a vital role in the photocatalytic degradation process. Also, the Z-scheme g-CN/BiYWO heterojunction photocatalyst exhibits excellent photoelectrochemical property and it is stable after 5 cycles, which indicates its good reusability nature. These enhancements are due to the newly formed heterostructure that facilitates the migration and separation efficiency of the photoproduced e-h pairs. Hence, the synthesized Z-scheme g-CN/BiYWO heterostructure could be an excellent material for wastewater remediation works.