Simultaneous photo-removal of hexavalent chromium and methyl orange by fabrication of graphitic carbon nitride loaded on fibrous silica iron

¹ Centre of Hydrogen Energy, Institute of Future Energy, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
² Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
³ Institute of Fuel Cell, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
⁴ Research Center for Biomass and Bioproduct, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: tuanamran@utm.my

Abstract

Simultaneous removal of heavy metal and organic compounds by photocatalysis has gained attention due to its ability to remove multiple pollutants in a single system that provides high efficiency at low energy consumption. Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄)/fibrous silica iron (FSFe) catalyst was successfully synthesized via impregnation and hydrothermal methods without calcination process. The XRD, FTIR and UV-Vis DRS were used to understand the physicochemical properties such as the crystallinity, the functional group present and the band gap in both gC₃N₄/FSFe and FSFe photocatalysts. The band gap of the FSFe photocatalyst (1.95 eV) was reduced to 1.9 eV after the loading of g-C₃N₄ material. The simultaneous photo-removal of Cr (VI) and methyl orange (MO) was improved up to 38.16% and 98.08% respectively. The efficient photocatalytic activity of Cr (VI) and MO could be due to the decreased bandgap of the synthesized catalysts. Hence, the modification of FSFe photocatalyst framework with the addition of g-C₃N₄ offers a great opportunity for the study of simultaneous photocatalytic removal of heavy metals and organic pollutants to be expanded.