Construction of a double heterojunction between graphite carbon nitride and anatase TiO with co-exposed (101) and (001) faces for enhanced photocatalytic degradation.

This study aimed to promote the separation of photogenerated carriers and improve the redox performance of graphite carbon nitride (g-CN) by synthesizing a double-heterojunction-structure photocatalyst, g-CN/(101)-(001)-TiO, through the solvothermal method. The photocatalyst comprised a Z-system formed from g-CN and the (101) plane of TiO, as well as a surface heterojunction formed from the (101) and (001) planes of TiO. The results showed that g-CN/(101)-(001)-TiO had strong photocatalytic activity and stable performance in the photodegradation of paracetamol. The active species ·O and ·OH were found to play important roles in the photocatalytic degradation of paracetamol through a radical-quenching experiment. The charge-transfer mechanism was also described in detail. Overall, this work provided a new strategy for the Z-system heterojunction and opened up the application of this structure in the degradation of organic pollutants.