1. Master Thesis

- Thesis topic: Plasma-treated Photocatalytic Substrates based on TiO2@g-C3N4 Z-Scheme structure to enhance the NO degradation under Visible light

- Doi: https://doi.org/10.6840/cycu202201059

- Abstract: 

         TiO2@g-C3N4 heterojunction composites were successfully produced utilizing commercial TiO2 and urea in a one-step pyrolysis. The degradation of nitric oxide (NO) under visible light was used to study the photocatalytic performance of a composite. The diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) was used to assess the light absorption and bandgap of the selected materials, which proved the materials significant photocatalytic activity under visible light. Under visible illumination, the NO photodegradation efficiency on glass, film and membrane substrates were about 90.15%, 87.77% and 84.50%, respectively. To evaluate the conversion route of NO during the photocatalytic process, the formation of byproducts and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was calculated. Furthermore, the TiO2@g-C3N4 demonstrated good stability after five reusability tests, with less than 10% decline in reusability. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) pictures and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were also used to examine the morphology and chemical contents of the materials (XPS). The structural vibrations in the materials were detected using Raman spectroscopy. The photocatalytic process of the TiO2@g-C3N4 composite was also unraveled using electron spin resonance (ESR) and trapping studies, with electron factor revealed to play a substantial role in NO removal.

Keywords: Photocatalyst, Nitric Oxide, Visible light, g-C3N4, TiO2