Design, preparation and properties of high-performance Z-scheme Bi2MoO6/g-C3N4-x composite photocatalyst

[Display omitted] •Increasing the photocatalysis efficiency of traditional carbon nitrogen by introducing nitro deficiency and composed with BiMoO6.•Synthesizing high-efficiency BiMoO6/g-C3N4 photocatalyst using a facile joint heating method.•Finding a convenient thermal etching method to control the nitro deficiency in carbon nitrogen.•Using ESR and free radical trap experiments for mechanism analysis. g-C3N4-x with nitrogen-deficient structure was prepared by raising the thermal etching temperature to 625 °C, and Bi2MoO6 was prepared through hydrothermal synthesis. The Bi2MoO6/g-C3N4-x composite photocatalyst with electron transfer mechanism as Z-scheme was then synthesized through joint heating at 400 °C. Mechanism analysis indicated that the formation of the nitrogen deficiency and Z-scheme carrier transport path in Bi2MoO6/g-C3N4-x composite photocatalyst can reduce the recombination rate of photogenerated electron-holes and prolong the lifetime of photogenerated carriers. 0.50 Bi2MoO6/g-C3N4-x had the highest photocatalytic activity, whose degradation rates reached 95% after 1 h irradiation, more than twice the photocatalysis effect of original g-C3N4.