Enhanced dye degradation performance enabled by swift electron mediator decorated WO₃/g-C₃N₄/V₂O₅ hybrid...

Organic pollutants such as dyes and pharmaceutical drugs have become a significant environmental problem due to their unrestricted discharge, especially in water bodies. As a result, an economically viable and environmentally friendly approach to their degradation in water bodies is required and the incorporation of metal tungstate with single metal oxide has attracted attention due to its potential ability towards the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants. The work demonstrates a WO₃/g-C₃N₄/V₂O₅ nanocomposite synthesized using a facile route wet impregnation method. The results revealed that WO₃/g-C₃N₄/V₂O₅ nanocomposites are suitable, mainly for their better surface properties, enhanced visible-light absorption, and preferred band positions. Besides that, the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye is carried out and demonstrated that the complete degradation occurs over 120 min using 10 mg L^-1 of WO₃/g-C₃N₄/V₂O₅ nanocomposite under UV-visible-light irradiation. The scavenger experimental result implies that the photogenerated free electrons and superoxide radials are important role in MB dye degradation. In addition, a possible mechanism is proposed for the photocatalytic activity of WO₃/g-C₃N₄/V₂O₅ nanocomposite. Moreover, the stability analysis demonstrated that the WO₃/g-C₃N₄/V₂O₅ nanocomposite can be recycled multiple times.