A novel Z-scheme CeO2/g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalyst for degradation of Bisphenol A and hydrogen evolution and insight of the photocatalysis mechanism

Abstract CeO2/g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalyst had been successfully fabricated through a one-step in-situ pyrolysis formation of 3D hollow CeO2 mesoporous nanospheres and 2D g-C3N4 nanosheets together with simultaneous removal of carbon sphere templates after heat treatment. The sample shows high catalytic performances for photocatalytic hydrogen generation and photocatalytic oxidation of Bisphenol A (BPA) under visible light irradiation, and the catalytic degradation route of BPA was suggested by the degradation products determined by GC-MS. The enhancing catalytic activity was attributed to the effective interfacial charge migration and separation. Finally, it was proposed that the CeO2/g-C3N4 heterojunction photocatalyst could follow a more appropriate Z-scheme charge transfer mechanism, which was confirmed by the analysis of experiment and theoretical calculation results.