Effectively enhanced photocatalytic organic pollutant degradation performance of the S-C3N4/Mg(OH)2 heterojunction system

S-C 3 N 4 /Mg(OH) 2 heterojunction photocatalyst was synthesized via a simple ball-milling method. • S-C 3 N 4 /Mg(OH) 2 exhibited significantly enhanced photocatalytic performance. • S-C 3 N 4 /Mg(OH) 2 demonstrated stable photocatalytic activity in complex ionic environments. • The photocatalytic reaction mechanism of S-C 3 N 4 /Mg(OH) 2 was proposed in this work. This work fabricated a type II 2D/2D S-doped graphitic carbon nitride/magnesium hydroxide (S-C 3 N 4 /Mg(OH) 2 ) heterojunction photocatalyst via a straightforward ball-milling method. The Mg(OH) 2 nanosheets are uniformly dispersed on the surface of S-C 3 N 4 , forming a well-developed heterojunction structure. The S-C 3 N 4 /Mg(OH) 2 composite material was employed as a photocatalyst and exhibited high efficiency in degrading tetracycline and methyl orange in an aqueous environment. The optimized S-C 3 N 4 /Mg(OH) 2 -30 composite demonstrated superior photocatalytic performance, achieving 100% removal of tetracycline within 45 min and 93% degradation of methyl orange within 60 min. Its performance was significantly superior to that of the single-component photocatalysts, and it exhibited stable photocatalytic activity even in complex ionic environments. The formation of Type-II heterojunction between S-C 3 N 4 and Mg(OH) 2 facilitates charge separation/migration and thus significantly enhanced pollutant removal efficiency. The S-C 3 N 4 /Mg(OH) 2 composite material fabricated in this work shows great promise for practical wastewater treatment applications. The S-C 3 N 4 /Mg(OH) 2 heterojunction photocatalyst was successfully fabricated. It not only exhibits outstanding photocatalytic performance in degrading organic pollutants but also maintains stable photocatalytic degradation ability even under complex ionic conditions. Download: Download high-res image (368KB) Download: Download full-size image