Facile preparation of ZnO:g-C 3 N 4 heterostructures and their application in amiloride photodegradation and CO 2 photoreduction

Semiconductor heterojunctions are interesting strategies for the development of efficient photocatalysts. In this paper we report the synthesis of ZnO:g-C 3 N 4 heterostructures with different percentages of g-C 3 N 4 (15%, 50% and 85%) using an easy and new method: precipitation of ZnO by alkaline solution at room temperature on g-C 3 N 4 surface. The nucleation of ZnO nanoparticles had effective interaction on the g-C 3 N 4 surface, showing good crystallinity and uniformity, which improved the heterostructure stability and the separation of photogenerated charge carriers, consequently increasing the photocatalytic efficiency for both the degradation of the amiloride (AML) drug and the conversion of CO 2 into products such as CO, CH 4 and C 2 H 4.