Partially oxidized MXenes-derived C-TiO2/Ti3C2 coupled with Fe-C3N4 as a ternary Z-scheme heterojunction: Enhanced photothermal and photo-Fenton performance

Yina Guan; Siwei Zhao; Jiaqi Li; Xianhe Deng; Shouchun Ma; Yanqiu Zhang; Baojiang Jiang; Tongjie Yao; Baifu Xin; Jiaxu Zhang; Jie Wu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.06.079

Partially oxidized MXenes-derived C-TiO₂/Ti₃C₂ coupled with Fe-C₃N₄ as a ternary Z-scheme heterojunction: Enhanced photothermal and photo-Fenton performance

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Nov 15:626:639-652. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.06.079. Epub 2022 Jun 24.

Authors

Yina Guan¹, Siwei Zhao², Jiaqi Li¹, Xianhe Deng¹, Shouchun Ma², Yanqiu Zhang¹, Baojiang Jiang¹, Tongjie Yao², Baifu Xin³, Jiaxu Zhang⁴, Jie Wu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, China.
² State Key Lab Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, China. Electronic address: xinbaifu@hlju.edu.cn.
⁴ State Key Lab Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China. Electronic address: zhjx@hit.edu.cn.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, China. Electronic address: wujie@hlju.edu.cn.

PMID: 35810703
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.06.079

Abstract

Photo-Fenton reaction combining the photocatalytic reaction and Fenton reaction showed excellent degradation performance. However, it highly demanded the catalysts to display outstanding activity in these two reactions. Herein, Fe-doped carbon nitride/MXenes-derived C-TiO₂/Ti₃C₂ (Fe-C₃N₄/Ti₃C₂/C-TiO₂) was prepared via two steps: Fe-C₃N₄ and Ti₃C₂ were assembled via face-to-face attachment, following by in-situ partial oxidation of Ti₃C₂ to C-TiO₂. DFT predicted a Z-scheme charge transfer routine via metallic Ti₃C₂ as bridge, which was verified by EPR and radical trapping experiments. Additionally, PDOS calculation revealed the charge density around the doped-Fe atoms was remarkably increased, leading to better H₂O₂ activation, which was experimentally confirmed by high yield of ^•OH. Moreover, Fe-C₃N₄/Ti₃C₂/C-TiO₂ possessed the high photothermal effect to accelerate the surface reaction. By taking advantage of these merits, the degradation rate of Fe-C₃N₄/Ti₃C₂/C-TiO₂ was at least 4.2 times higher than the reference catalysts. Our work provided an insight toward the g-C₃N₄/TiO₂-based photo-Fenton catalysts with high performance.

Keywords: Heterojunction; Photo-Fenton reaction; Photocatalysis; Pollutant degradation; Z-scheme routine.