Controlled Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of the 2D-BiOCl/2D-g-C3N4 Heterostructure for the Degradation of Amine-Based Pharmaceuticals under Solar Light Illumination

Designing efficient 2D-bismuth oxychloride (BiOCl)/2D-g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalysts by the microwave-assisted method was studied in this work using different amounts of BiOCl plates coupled with g-C3N4 nanosheets. The effects of coupling the 2D structure of g-C3N4 with the 2D structure of BiOCl were systematically examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence (PL), lifetime decay measurement, surface charges of the samples at various pH conditions, and UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV–vis DRS). The prepared photocatalysts were used for the degradation of amine-based pharmaceuticals, and nizatidine was used as a model pollutant to evaluate the photocatalytic activity. The UV–vis DRS and other optical properties indicated the major effect of coupling of BiOCl with g-C3N4 into a 2D/2D structure. The results showed a narrowing in the band gap energy of the composite form, whereas the PL and lifetime analysis showed ...