Facile Synthesis of a Heterojunction of Snowflake Dendritic Cu2S-2D g-C3N4: An Efficient Photocatalyst for Degradation of Several Textile Dyes and Antibiotics under Solar Light

Abstract

The pollution of aquatic environments by industrial effluents is a significant challenge and intensifies the rapid pace of industrialization and globalization. In this work, a heterojunction is created by forming a hierarchical structure composed of a p-type semiconductor Cu₂S having a dendritic snowflake structure and n-type semiconductor 2D g-C₃N₄. Initially, the photocatalytic (PC) performances of Cu₂S-g-C₃N₄ (p–n heterojunction) are evaluated toward the degradation of a model dye methyl orange (MO) under the simulated solar light exposure. To optimize the composition of the photocatalyst, this reaction is performed using the photocatalysts with varying amounts of Cu₂S and g-C₃N₄, and among several compositions, 10Cu₂S-90 g-C₃N₄ heterostructure demonstrates the highest PC activity, achieving complete degradation of MO within ≈30 min, with an apparent rate constant of k_app = 2.05 × 10⁻³ s⁻¹. This performance is superior to many reported photocatalysts. The PC activities of this photocatalyst are assessed toward the degradation of different textile dyes and various antibiotics. 10Cu₂S-90 g-C₃N₄ exhibits excellent PC performances by degrading the aforementioned commercial dyes and antibiotics, which are real examples of water pollutants and present in different wastewater effluents. Thus, this photocatalyst demonstrates its potential to be used in water pollution remediation processes.