Morphological effect of TiO2 nanoparticles in TiO2/g-C3N4 heterojunctions on photocatalytic dye degradation

Abstract

The effects of TiO2 nanoparticle (NP) morphology on the photocatalytic activity of physically assembled TiO2 NP/g-C3N4 heterojunctions (TCNPHY) was investigated. Spherical, spindle and cubic TiO2 NPs were synthesized and separately supported on g-C3N4 nanosheets to form physically assembled TCNPHY catalysts. The photocatalytic activity for methylene blue (MB) degradation observed for TCNPHY with the cubic TiO2 NPs supported higher light absorption and a lower recombination rate; therefore, this was an adequate catalyst for the construction of catalytically active heterojunctions. The cubic-TiO2 TCNPHY exhibited a degradation rate that was 2.2 times higher than that for the g-C3N4 nanosheets alone.