Effect of rutile TiO2 on the photocatalytic performance of g-C3N4/brookite-TiO2-xNy photocatalyst for NO decomposition

Novel g-C 3 N 4 /rutile-brookite TiO 2-x N y composite photocatalysts were fabricated through a facile solvothermal approach. The effect of rutile phase TiO 2 with brookite TiO 2 and g-C 3 N 4 on the photocatalytic activity of g-C 3 N 4 /nitrogen-doped TiO 2 composite was studied. The photocatalytic performance of the photocatalyst was evaluated by measuring the degradation of NO gas under visible and UV light irradiation. It is suggested that g-C 3 N 4 /rutile-brookite TiO 2-x N y forms a Z-scheme photocatalytic system, which shows improvement on the photocatalytic activity than that of g-C 3 N 4 /single brookite TiO 2-x N y . By importing rutile phase TiO 2-x N y , the photogenerated electrons can efficiently transfer from rutile TiO 2 to g-C 3 N 4 , which results in the separation of electron and hole pairs, enhancing the photocatalytic ability. However, single brookite TiO 2-x N y can not remove the photogenerated electrons efficiently and the photocatalytic performances of composites decrease with g-C 3 N 4 amount increase.