A novel pig manure solid/g-C3N4 hybrid photocatalyst with high adsorption and photocatalytic performance

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) has promising prospects in environmental applications. However, g-C₃N₄ still suffers from its low adsorption performance and photocatalytic degradation activity for pollutants. Meanwhile, pig manure solid is harmful to the environment if it is not properly handled and a huge amount of pig manure solid needs to be processed. In this study, effective pig manure solid/g-C₃N₄ hybrid photocatalyst was developed through a simple ultrasonic dispersion mixing approach. The characterization results indicated that cationic dye methylene blue (MB) could be quickly adsorbed on the surface of the hybrid photocatalyst because pig manure solid possessed various negatively charged functional groups and larger specific surface area. Due to the tight binding or reaction between the surface groups on g-C₃N₄ and the organic matter in pig manure solid, pig manure solid could be closely integrated with g-C₃N₄ after ultrasonic dispersion mixing. Z-scheme heterojunctions could be formed between g-C₃N₄ and inorganic semiconductors (SiO₂, etc.) in pig manure solid, which could facilitate photocatalytic performance. Thus, the hybrid photocatalyst showed excellent performance in MB wastewater treatment. This work not only provides a new strategy for designing effective hybrid photocatalyst applied in wastewater treatment, but also can realize the resource utilization of pig manure solid waste.