Facile fabrication of highly efficient g-C3N4/BiFeO3 nanocomposites with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activities

Graphitic carbon nitride/bismuth ferrite (g-C3N4/BiFeO3) nanocomposites with various g-C3N4 contents have been synthesized by a simple method. After the deposition-precipitation process, the novel BiFeO3 spindle-like nanoparticles with the size of similar to 100 nm were homogeneously decorated on the surfaces of the C3N4 nanosheets. A possible deposition growth mechanism is proposed on the basis of experimental results. The as-prepared g-C3N4/BiFeO3 composites exhibit high efficiency for the degradation of methyl orange (MO) under visible light irradiation, which can be mainly attributed to the synergic effect between g-C3N4 and BiFeO3. The ability to tune surface and interfacial characteristics for the optimization of photophysical properties suggests that the deposition growth process may enable formation of hybrids suitable for a range of photocatalytic applications based on g-C3N4. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.