Rapid fabrication of MgO@g-C₃N₄ heterojunctions for photocatalytic nitric oxide removal

Nitric oxide (NO) is an air pollutant impacting the environment, human health, and other biotas. Among the technologies to treat NO pollution, photocatalytic oxidation under visible light is considered an effective means. This study describes photocatalytic oxidation to degrade NO under visible light with the support of a photocatalyst. MgO@g-C₃N₄ heterojunction photocatalysts were synthesized by one-step pyrolysis of MgO and urea at 550 °C for two hours. The photocatalytic NO removal efficiency of the MgO@g-C₃N₄ heterojunctions was significantly improved and reached a maximum value of 75.4% under visible light irradiation. Differential reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) was used to determine the optical properties and bandgap energies of the material. The bandgap of the material decreases with increasing amounts of MgO. The photoluminescence spectra indicate that the recombination of electron-hole pairs is hindered by doping MgO onto g-C₃N₄. Also, NO conversion, DeNOx index, apparent quantum efficiency, trapping tests, and electron spin resonance measurements were carried out to understand the photocatalytic mechanism of the materials. The high reusability of the MgO@g-C₃N₄ heterojunction was shown by a five-cycle recycling test. This study provides a simple way to synthesize photocatalytic heterojunction materials with high reusability and the potential of heterojunction photocatalysts in the field of environmental remediation.