Controlled synthesis of carbon nitride-TiO2 nanocomposites for prompt photocatalytic degradation of individual and mixed organic dyes at room temperature

Development of efficient and low-cost photocatalysts for the degradation of mixed organic dyes in water resources is of great importance in various industrial and environmental applications. Herein, we prepared organic-inorganic nanocomposites including a carbon nitride and TiO 2 (0.1CNTi) without and with reduced graphene oxide denoted as 0.1rGOCNTi using the modified hydrothermal method. The TiO 2 and composite catalysts 0.1rGOCNTi and CNTi were well characterized previously using FT-IR, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS). The photocatalytic oxidation performances of typically prepared 0.1rGOCNTi and 0.1CNTi nanocomposites were investigated towards methylene blue (MB), Rhodamine B (RhB), and Rhodamine 6G (Rh6G) (individually and mixed) at room temperature under Xe lamp illumination in the presence of H 2 O 2 along with the in situ electrogenerated O 3 . Interestingly, the degradation percentage of the individual and mixed dye solution on the synthesized nanocomposites reached over 90% within 5 min and 20 min, respectively, with a slight superior activity for 0.1CNTi than 0.1rGOCNTi. The presented study may open new gates for fabrication of CNTi-based nanocomposites for wastewater purification applications.