from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
The photocatalytic degradation of dangerous substances is widely studied topic and many scientific reports have been already published about this issue. Undoubtedly, titanium dioxide is the most often studied compound for photocatalysis in UV region, while graphitic carbon nitride is the most often studied photocatalyst in VIS region. Combination of the photocatalysts leads to the formation of composites with improved photocatalytic performance and better applicability. In this work, the composites of exfoliated g-C3N4 and TiO2 in anatase form were prepared by mechanical mixing of both components in weight ratio 1:1. The prepared mechanical mixtures as well as the original components were thermally treated at 300 a 400°C and characterized using X-ray diffraction method, infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, UV-VIS diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The morphology of the particles was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The photocatalytic activity of the samples was tested using the method based on the 2h long UV assisted photodegradation of Acid Orange 7. The results indicated the highest photodegradation activity for a non-thermally treated mechanical mixture of g-C3N4 and TiO2. For the composites the photocatalytic activity (PA) decreases with the temperature of the thermal treatment, the same effect was observed for original TiO2, while for original g-C3N4 the photodegradation activity increased with the temperature of the treatment.
Keywords: Photocatalysis, g-C3N4, TiO2, composites, properties© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.