Photodegradation of methylene blue and Rose Bengal employing g-C3N4/ZnWO4 nanocatalysts under ultraviolet light irradiation

In this research, urea-derived g-C3N4/ZnWO4 (ZnW-U) heterostructures have been synthesized through a simple and eco-friendly one-pot process. Morphology, structure, and composition of the prepared nanocomposites were ascertained using techniques such as XRD, FTIR, Raman, FESEM, and UV–Vis analysis. To investigate the photocatalytic performance of the as-synthesized heterostructures, organic pollutant methylene blue (MB) and Rose Bengal (RB) dyes were chosen as benchmark reactions, which revealed that the as-prepared g-C3N4/ZnWO4 heterostructures show remarkably improved photocatalytic efficacy for the decomposition of MB and RB dyes under ultraviolet (UV) light treatment. Concisely, the photocatalytic efficiency of the prepared nanocomposite under UV light irradiation showed an MB and RB degradation of more than 86% and 94%, respectively. The higher photocatalytic performance could be owing to the formation of heterojunction among graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) and ZnWO4, and efficient photoproduced electron–hole pairs separation. A plausible photocatalytic mechanism for the enhanced degradation performance of MB in presence of the as-synthesized photocatalysts is also suggested.