Soft Template-Assisted Controllable Synthesis of Nanocrystalline Orthorhombic YFeO3 Decorated Porous g-C3N4 with Enhanced Hg(II) reduction

Abstract

Mesoporous single-crystalline perovskite YFeO3 nanoparticles was synthesized through a soft template-assisted approach. Mesoporous YFeO3 NPs were decorated porous g-C3N4 nanosheets with variation YFeO3 NPs percentages, and the newly synthesized photocatalysts were assessed towards Hg(II) reduction and HCOOH oxidation in aqueous solution upon visible light exposure. XRD and HR-TEM revealed the formation of single-crystalline orthorhombic YFeO3 with uniformly dispersed and the average particle size of 10\u2009±\u20095 nm, thereby constructing a mesoporous YFeO3/g-C3N4 heterojunctions for the promotion of the photocatalytic performances compared to bare YFeO3 NPs and g-C3N4. 3% YFeO3/g-C3N4 heterostructure revealed the highest and optimum Hg(II) reduction (100%) within 60 min, which determined 3.7 and 5 times larger than of bare YFeO3 NPs and g-C3N4 obeyed by pseudo-first-order kinetics. The YFeO3/g-C3N4 photocatalyst could be recycled five continuous cycles and kept remarkable photostability for long time illumination. The superior Hg(II) reduction over mesoporous YFeO3/g-C3N4 heterojunction is referred to as lower recombination of carriers, the unique electronic structure, higher visible light utilization and high surface area. This work focused on constructing the YFeO3/g-C3N4 heterojunction, indicating outstanding photocatalytic performances in a facile route.