Blackened nanostructured BaTiO 3 and heterojunction with g -C 3 N 4 for enhancing photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical properties

In-situ introduction of oxygen-deficiency in traditional semiconductor nano-oxides has been proved to be one of the most effective strategies for enhancing light-harvesting and energy conversion efficiency. This work intends to correlate oxygen vacancy of ferroelectric oxygen carriers with redox properties. The crystalline-BaTiO 3 / amorphous-BaTiO 3− x / crystalline- g -C 3 N 4 composite nanoparticles have been synthesized by combining the hydrothermal synthesis and aluminothermic reduction method. The aluminothermic reduction established a shell of amorphous layer contributed by the oxygen vacancy generation, which extended range of sunlight absorption. Meanwhile abundant oxygen vacancies simulate the generation of reactive oxidizing species, resulting in intensive photodegradation ability. The effective degradation process is the result of synergistic interaction among heterojunction, reactive radical species and abundant oxygen vacancies, the degradation efficiency of methylene blue (MB) solution reach to 99.47% within 30 min, which demonstrates the promising prospects of BaTiO 3 /BaTiO 3 −   x / g -C 3 N 4 as costing effective, highly stable and efficient photocatalysts.