In Situ g‐C 3 N 4 @Zno Nanocomposite: One‐Pot Hydrothermal Synthesis and Photocatalytic Performance under Visible Light Irradiation

In situ g‐C 3 N 4 @ZnO nanocomposites (with 0, 1, 3, 5, and 7 wt.% of g‐C 3 N 4 in nanocomposite) were synthesized via a one‐pot hydrothermal method using precursors of urea, zinc nitrate hexahydrate, and hexamethylenetetramine. The g‐C 3 N 4 @ZnO nanocomposites were characterized by X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The photocatalyst activity of g‐C 3 N 4 @ZnO nanocomposites was evaluated via methylene blue degradation experiment under visible light irradiation. The g‐C 3 N 4 @ZnO nanocomposites showed an enhancement in photocatalytic activity in comparison to pure ZnO which increased with the g‐C 3 N 4 content (1, 3, 5, and 7 wt.%) in nanocomposites. The photocatalytic activity reached the highest efficiency of 96.8% when the content of g‐C 3 N 4 was 7.0 wt.%. Nanocomposite having 7.0 wt.% of g‐C 3 N 4 also showed good recyclability with degradation efficiency higher than 90% even in the 4 th use. The improvement of photocatalytic activity could be attributed to the adsorption ability and effective separation of electron‐hole pairs between g‐C 3 N 4 and ZnO. This work implies a simple method to in situ prepare the nanocomposite material of g‐C 3 N 4 and semiconductors oxide for photocatalyst applications with high efficiency and good recyclability.