Direct Z-Scheme CoFe₂O₄-Loaded g-C₃N₄ Photocatalyst with High Degradation Efficiency of Methylene Blue under Visible-Light Irradiation

Magnetically recyclable direct Z-scheme CoFe2O4-loaded g-C3N4 photocatalyst material was fabricated using a facile hydrothermal technique and subsequently characterized by XRD, VSM, PL, FT-IR, EDX, DRS, SEM, and BET techniques. The characterization results confirmed that nanoparticles of CoFe2O4 are loaded on the surface of g-C3N4 sheets. The optical band gap of g-C3N4 has been decreased from 2.65 eV to 1.30 eV by means of the loading of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles onto the nanosheets of g-C3N4. This has enhanced the separation process of electron-hole. Under visible light irradiation, the photocatalytic activity of the developed direct Z-scheme CoFe2O4-loaded g-C3N4 photocatalyst was evaluated for the photodegradation of methylene blue (MB); during this process the MB decomposed by up to 98.86% in 140 min. Meanwhile, under the same irradiation and time conditions, the g-C3N4 and CoFe2O4 themselves degraded MB up to 74.92% and 51.53%, respectively. The direct Z-scheme CoFe2O4-loaded g-C3N4 material was recovered from the solution after the photocatalytic activity using an external magnet and studied to determine its stability. It was shown that the photoactivity did not change significantly after five consecutive cycles.