Z-scheme TiO2/g-C3N4 composites prepared by hydrothermal assisted thermal polymerization with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity

Melamine was added to the precursor of TiO2, then TiO2 prepared by hydrothermal, while melamine was modified. Subsequently, a series of Z-scheme TiO2/g-C3N4 heterojunction composites were successfully synthesized by simple calcination. The morphology and structure of samples were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, UV–vis DRS, SEM, TEM, PL and BET. The photocatalytic activity of these samples has been investigated by degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB), and results indicated that photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared samples was greatly influenced by the content of titanium tetrabutoxide in precursors and the hydrothermal time. The degradation rate of TiO2/g-C3N4-1 to RhB was the best, which was 5.05-fold of pure TiO2 (19.61%) and 2.25-fold of bulk g-C3N4 (44.06%), respectively. The trapping experiment results showed that ·O2− and h+ were main active species during degradation of RhB. The photocatalytic activity of the sample did not decrease significantly after 4 cycles. The unique Z-scheme heterojunction between TiO2 and g-C3N4 improved photocatalytic activity of the samples under visible light.