A novel interface engineered BiOBr/BiOCl/g-C3N5 ternary heterostructures for enhanced charge separation and visible-light photocatalytic environmental remediation

A novel ternary BiOBr/BiOCl/g-C 3 N 5 nanocomposite material was synthesized for the enhancement of visible light driven photocatalytic performance. The structural, functional, optical and dye degradation photocatalytic properties for the synthesized material were characterized. XRD analysis confirms the successful formation of a well crystallized structure and phase purity of the pure, binary and ternary composite material. FTIR spectroscopy was analyzed to confirms the presence of functional groups and chemical bonding interactions among BiOBr, BiOCl and g-C 3 N 5 . The SEM-EDX analysis also confirmed the elemental presence of Bi, C, N, O, Cl and Br and shows the successful formation of composite material. The optical properties were investigated using UV absorbance and the calculated energy band gap value of the ternary BiOBr/ BiOCl/g-C 3 N 5 nanocomposite material was 2.68 eV, indicates the improved visible light absorption compared to the pure and binary nanomaterial. The optical and electrical conductivity demonstrates the charge carrier mobility in the ternary nanocomposite material. Photocatalytic activity was analysed under visible light irradiation, compared to BiOBr, BiOBr/BiOCl the ternary BiOBr/BiOCl/g-C 3 N 5 nanocomposite material exhibits superior degradation efficiency of 86% in 60 min and R 2 value as 0.82078 in kinetic pseudo first order. Overall, the results suggest that the enhancement is mainly due to synergistic effect of the heterojunction, which promotes the efficient separation and photogenerated electron hole pairs for environmental remediation and solar driven photocatalytic applications.