Investigation of Pd@g-C3N4/TiO2 nanoparticles as photocatalyst in the degradation of methylene blue under visible light irradiation

In the present study, the efficiency of Pd@g-C3N4/TiO2 NPs as photocatalysts on thedegradation of organic pollutant methylene blue (MB) dye under visible light has been investigated. Atraditional one-step impregnation-reduction method was used for the preparation of photocatalysts.Pd@g-C3N4/TiO2 NPs were characterized by several techniques such as FT-IR, DR/UV-Vis, SEM EDX, TEM, P-XRD, and XPS analyses. The photocatalytic performance of Pd@g-C3N4/TiO2 NPs wasevaluated for the degradation of MB dye under visible light irradiation. Among different loadings ofPd (0.3, 0.5, and 0.7 %), the 0.5% loading Pd@g-C3N4/TiO2 NPs showed the highest catalytic activity.The results revealed an enhancement in the visible light photocatalytic activity of g-C3N4/TiO2 when itwas coupled with Pd in the composite. Compared with pure g-C3N4/TiO2, the Pd@ g-C3N4/TiO2 hybridphotocatalyst exhibited enhanced visible-light photoactivity, which was approximately three timeshigher than that of pure g-C3N4/TiO2.