A direct oxygen vacancy essential Z-scheme C@Ti4O7/g-C3N4 heterojunctions for visible-light degradation towards environmental dye pollutants

Abstract The unique C@Ti4O7/g-C3N4 photocatalyst was synthesize via wet chemical and annealing & calcining method, which was gifted both the intrinsic oxygen vacancies as well as Z-scheme heterojunction nature in structure. Such a unique three-dimensional structure exhibited exceptional photodegradation performance for the dye simulations system (Rhodamine B (RhB), methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO)) under visible light irradiation, which is better than a single component and Anatase-TiO2. Subsequently, a possible photocatalytic Z-scheme mechanism was proposed to further illustrate the effective separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs in C@Ti4O7/g-C3N4 based on structure and electrochemical characterizations results, which will help to better understand the nature of Z-scheme heterojunctions.