High-performance photocatalysis afforded by g-C3N4/NiCo2O4-decorated carbon cloth

Abstract We report a novel photocatalyst by constructing graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4)/spinel nickel cobaltite (NiCo2O4) heterojunctions on carbon cloth (CC). The growth of tubular g-C3N4 with a wall thickness of 20 nm on CC was performed via a thermal condensation method with ZnO nanorods as the sacrifice templates. The growth of NiCo2O4 nanosheets with a thickness of 10 nm on tubular g-C3N4 was realized by electrodeposition and calcination. Under visible light, the prepared g-C3N4/NiCo2O4/CC and g-C3N4/CC photocatalysts could remove 97% and 36% ciprofloxacin in 60 min, respectively. After 5 cycles, the photocatalytic activity did not decrease significantly. The photocatalysts with high catalytic activity were grown on CC and show promising potential applications for the degradation of organic pollutant in water. This strategy could potentially be extended to adapt to major areas for other applications.