Investigation of heterojunction between α-Fe2O3/V2O5 and g-C3N4 ternary nanocomposites for upgraded photo-degradation performance of mixed pollutants: Efficient dual Z-scheme mechanism

•GFV composite PCs revealed that superior photodegradation activity of the mixed dye.•The GFV PCs is 4.93 and 5.97 folds superior to that of GCN for MY and MB mixed dye.•Each successive recycles, the superior magnetic PCs was recovered by under magnets.•A possible dual Z-scheme charge transfer mechanism was also been proposed. [Display omitted] In this present work, a g-C3N4 decorated dual Z-scheme α-Fe2O3 and V2O5 heterojunction of magnetically recoverable GFV (g-C3N4/α-Fe2O3/V2O5) composite was rationally synthesized using facile calcination and hydrothermal approach. The crystal structure, surface morphology, chemical composition and optical properties of the as-obtained composite photocatalysts (PCs) were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurement, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) and photoluminescence (PL) analyses respectively. Benefiting from these structural and compositional features, the optimum GFV heterostructured PCs sample revealed that the superior photo-degradation performance of methyl yellow (MY) and methylene blue (MB) mixed dye under visible-light, while the degradation rates were 93.4% for MY and 87.5% for MB dye at 90 min, respectively. Moreover, the enhanced photo-degradation performance of GFV composite PCs displayed an extended visible-light fascination due to lower bandgap, reduced recombination rates, high charge separation and good charge transfer capacity with the efficient dual Z-scheme heterojunction. Meanwhile, high photo-degradation stability is continued after five successive reusability tests. A possible photo-degradation mechanism of dual Z-scheme charge transfer paths was also been proposed. This study is also capable of emerging visible-light active facile heterojunction photocatalysts for various organic pollutants removal with great efficiency.