Improved bisphenol A degradation under visible-light irradiation through a Bi₂Ti₂O₇/g-C₃N₄ binary Z-scheme heterojunction

The photocatalytic degradation technique is considered to be one of the most promising approaches for solving the problem of environmental pollution. In this study, novel binary Bi2Ti2O7/g-C3N4 Z-scheme heterojunctions were prepared using a calcination method. The prepared composite materials were used to degrade bisphenol A under visible-light irradiation. The degradation experiments proved that the composite material with 50 wt.% Bi2Ti2O7 (denoted as BTC-50) showed excellent photocatalytic performance, which was consistent with the characterization results. The composite material displayed no significant decrease in photocatalytic activity after five recycles, and the degradation process was proven to follow pseudo-first-order kinetics. Besides, it was found that center dot O-2(-) played the main role in the photocatalytic reaction process. This work significantly deepens the understanding of Z-scheme heterojunction material for organic degradation and provides ideas for the design of high-performance catalysts.