Precursor-directed approach to fabricate TiO2-gCN composite: An efficient photocatalyst to harness solar spectrum

ABSTRACT In this study the porous composites, in-situ TiO2-g-C3N4 (in-situ TiO2-g-CN), was fabricated by in-situ generation of TiO2 from titanium tetra-oximate during thermal polymerisation of urea into gC3N4. For comparison, TiO2-g-C3N4 composite (TiO2-g-CN) and g-C3N4 (gCN) were also prepared by decomposition of urea in the presence and absence of TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs), respectively. The synthesised composites were characterised by FT-IR, SEM-EDX, TGA, and XRD analyses. The analyses of the samples revealed that the particle size of the composites decreases with the addition of TiO2 precursor, titanium tetra-oximate, during g-C3N4 Synthesis. A comparative study has been conducted on the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) dyes in the presence of in-situ TiO2-g-CN, TiO2-g-CN, and gCN under the solar spectrum. In the presence of in-situ TiO2-g-CN, 99.7% degradation of MB and 68.4% degradation of MO was observed within 100 min, and it is superior as compared to TiO2-g-CN and gCN. Graphical Abstract