title: Cost-effective and eco-friendly synthesis of novel and stable N-doped ZnO/g-C3N4 core-shell nanoplates with excellent visible-light responsive photocatalysis.
abstract: N-doped ZnO/g-C3N4 hybrid core-shell nanoplates have been successfully prepared via a facile, cost-effective and eco-friendly ultrasonic dispersion method for the first time. HRTEM studies confirm the formation of the N-doped ZnO/g-C3N4 hybrid core-shell nanoplates with an average diameter of 50 nm and the g-C3N4 shell thickness can be tuned by varying the content of loaded g-C3N4. The direct contact of the N-doped ZnO surface and g-C3N4 shell without any adhesive interlayer introduced a new carbon energy level in the N-doped ZnO band gap and thereby effectively lowered the band gap energy. Consequently, the as-prepared hybrid core-shell nanoplates showed a greatly enhanced visible-light photocatalysis for the degradation of Rhodamine B compare to that of pure N-doped ZnO surface and g-C3N4. Based on the experimental results, a proposed mechanism for the N-doped ZnO/g-C3N4 photocatalyst was discussed. Interestingly, the hybrid core-shell nanoplates possess high photostability. The improved photocatalytic performance is due to a synergistic effect at the interface of the N-doped ZnO and g-C3N4 including large surface-exposure area, energy band structure and enhanced charge-separation properties. Significantly, the enhanced performance also demonstrates the importance of evaluating new core-shell composite photocatalysts with g-C3N4 as shell material.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology, Warangal-506004, A.P., India. vishnu@nitw.ac.in.
authors.forename: Santosh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Arabinda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baruah
authors.forename: Surendar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tonda
authors.forename: Bharat
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Vishnu
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Shanker
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sreedhar