Facile fabrication of highly efficient g-C₃N₄/BiFeO₃ nanocomposites with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activities

Graphitic carbon nitride/bismuth ferrite (g-C₃N₄/BiFeO₃) nanocomposites with various g-C₃N₄ contents have been synthesized by a simple method. After the deposition-precipitation process, the novel BiFeO₃ spindle-like nanoparticles with the size of ~100nm were homogeneously decorated on the surfaces of the C₃N₄ nanosheets. A possible deposition growth mechanism is proposed on the basis of experimental results. The as-prepared g-C₃N₄/BiFeO₃ composites exhibit high efficiency for the degradation of methyl orange (MO) under visible light irradiation, which can be mainly attributed to the synergic effect between g-C₃N₄ and BiFeO₃. The ability to tune surface and interfacial characteristics for the optimization of photophysical properties suggests that the deposition growth process may enable formation of hybrids suitable for a range of photocatalytic applications based on g-C₃N₄.