Influence of g-C3N4 and metal loading on layered double hydroxides for their improved adsorption and photocatalytic properties

Abstract

This work reported the viable synthesis of layered double hydroxides constituting variable divalent and trivalent metal cations. The Ni-Co LDH, Mg-Al LDH, and Co-Al LDH were prepared via different synthetic methods and characterized accordingly. Furthermore, g-C3N4, one of the most stable allotropes of carbon is a non-toxic, cost-effective, and promising material found in the area of adsorption and photocatalysis. Based on the research that was done, it was found that coupling g-C3N4 (CN) with LDH was a good way to improve the adsorption and photocatalytic properties of layered double hydroxides. The coupling of CN with LDH improved its adsorption properties towards cationic pollutants and also enhanced its photocatalytic properties via enhancing the surface active sites, inhibiting recombination of charge carriers, and widening the light absorption capabiltiy. Moreover, the deposition of plasmonic metal nanoparticles onto LDH and CN coupled LDH composites was emphasized in this work, which showed that plasmonic nanocomposites exhibited better photocatalytic performance towards the degradation of organic pollutants through enhancing the absorption of light in the visible region and separating the photogenerated electron-hole pairs. The prepared photocatalysts were highly effective in degrading harmful organic pollutants under cost-effective LED bulbs available in our homes. The LC-MS analysis proved that harmful organic pollutant molecules were broken down into smaller byproducts.