Abstract
Photocatalysis is one of the fascinating fields for the wastewater treatment. In this regard, the present study deals with an effective visible light active BiYO
3
/g-C
3
N
4
heterojunction nanocomposite photocatalyst with various ratios of BiYO
3
and g-C
3
N
4
(1:3, 1:1 and 3:1), synthesised by a wet chemical approach. The as-synthesised nanocomposite photocatalysts were investigated via different physicochemical approaches like Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electrons microscopy (TEM), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), photoluminescence (PL) and photoelectrochemical studies to characterise the crystal structure, morphology, optical absorption characteristics and photoelectrochemical properties. The photocatalytic degradation ability of the prepared photocatalytic samples was also analysed through the degradation of RhB in the presence of visible light irradiation. Of all the synthesised photocatalysts, the optimised CB-1 composite showed a significant photocatalytic efficiency (88.7%), with excellent stability and recyclability after three cycles. O
2
•−
and
•
OH radicals were found to act a major role in the RhB degradation using optimised CB-1 composite, and it possessed ~ 1 times greater photocurrent intensity than the pristine g-C
3
N
4
and BiYO
3
. In the present work, a direct Z-scheme heterojunction BiYO
3
/g-C
3
N
4
with a considerably improved photocatalytic performance is reported.
Graphical Abstract