Dramatic Activity of C 3N4/BiPO4 Photocatalyst with Core/Shell Structure Formed by Self-Assembly

What is it about?

Core/shell structured C 3N4/BiPO4 photocatalyst is fabricated via a facile ultrasonic dispersion method. The thickness of the shell may be controlled by tuning the amount of C 3N4 in the dispersion, which determines the enhanced level of photocatalytic activity. The optimum photocatalytic activity of C 3N4/BiPO 4 at a weight ratio of 4% (C 3N4/BiPO4) under UV irradiation is almost 4.5 times as high as that of reference P25 (TiO 2) and 2.5 times of BiPO 4.More attractively, the dramatic visible light photocatalytic activity is generated due to the C 3N4 loaded. The enhancement in performance is demonstrated to be the match of lattice and energy level between the C 3N4 and BiPO 4. Thismatch facilitates the separation and transfer of photogenerated electron–hole pairs at the heterojunction interfaces and may be important for other core/shell structured materials. In addition, this method is expected to be extended for other C 3N4 loaded materials.

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Why is it important?

BiPO4, an oxoacid salt photocatalyst, was discovered by our group and exhibits more attractive activity than that of P25. [8]To the best of our knowledge, few efforts have been made to electronically combine conjugated materials such as g-C 3N4with this type of photocatalyst. Here, the C 3N4/BiPO4 core/shellstructure is synthesized through a self-assembly method. The interaction between BiPO 4 and g-C 3N4 as well as the resulting effect on photocatalytic activity is investigated systematically.

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