Synthesis of W/Fe co-doped g-C3N4 decorated with Au nanoparticles for photocatalytic performance

Water pollution is one of the important issues in the world. It was reported that the lack of drinking water would be one of the important problems for many countries in the future. Therefore, finding new materials for the decontamination of water from different kinds of toxins is of great importance. In the present study, W/Fe co -doped g-C3N4 decorated with Au nanoparticles was prepared via a facile thermal treatment method. The syn-thesized specimens were used as a photocatalyst for water decontamination. The XRD findings revealed that crystalline g-C3N4 was formed after heat treatment. The addition of W and Fe to the g-C3N4 led to an XRD peak shift to the lower angles. XPS analysis confirmed the successful doping of W and Fe elements into the g-C3N4. TEM image showed that gold particles with an average size of 100 nm were uniformly dispersed on the surface of layered g-C3N4. The band gap energy of samples decreased from 2.69 eV to 2.59 eV by the addition of tungsten and iron to g-C3N4, whereas the deposition of gold nanoparticles did not have an important effect on band gap and improved the light-harvesting via the SPR phenomenon. The W/Fe co-doped g-C3N4 decorated with Au had a higher photocatalytic yield compared to other specimens. The possible mechanisms of dye removal and the role of reactive species on photocatalytic activity via the produced samples were discussed.