Abstract
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•Construction of Ag3VO4/ CNT / Fe doped C3N4 based dual Z-scheme photocatalyst.•Conversion of photocatalyst into photo-Fenton like catalyst via H2O2 coupling.•Hydroxyl radicals dominated degradation process.•The complete mineralization of phenol was attainted.•The proposed system exhibited high recyclability and stability.
Rational design strategy with a facile synthetic approach of environmental-friendly photocatalysts is a unique challenge in photocatalytic technology. The precedent work reports the successful synthesis of a Z-scheme Fe doped graphitic carbon nitride coupled Ag3VO4 compounded with carbon nanotubes (FeCN/AV/CNT) photocatalyst through facile precipitation-deposition technique. Characterization analysis including FESEM, XRD, FTIR, XPS and EDS was conducted to clarify the morphology and structure engineering properties of as-synthesized heterostructures (FeCN/AV/CNT). The efficient photocatalytic removal of 2,4 dimethyl phenol was attributed to multi electron transference route comprising of incorporation of Fe dopant in graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4), proceeded by coupling with Ag3VO4 (AV) simultaneously under solar light illumination. FeCN/AV/CNT photocatalyst was converted into a heterogeneous system with the addition of H2O2. The augmentation in catalytic activity was corroborated by photo-Fenton Fe3+ ions and H2O2 to generate more hydroxyl radicals. The positive synergistic effect between Fe-CN/AV/CNT Z-scheme approaches promoted enhancement in photodegradation performance by achieving maximum separation and rapid migration of photogenerated charge carriers, prolonged absorption in visible spectrum with augmented light absorption ability. The rate constant for FeCN/AV/CNT activated H2O2 is about 1.37 and 1.63 times high compared to FeCN/AV/CNT and FeCN/AV and exhibited outstanding catalytic efficiency and stability for five consecutive catalytic cycles. The plausible mechanism of FeCN/AV/CNT H2O2 based Z scheme system was also explored.