Cobalt/Graphitic Carbon Nitride Codoped Zinc Oxide Nanocomposite as an Advanced Photocatalyst for the Degradation of an Organic Dye in Water

The unrestricted discharge of textile chemicals in natural water sources has posed major ecological and environmental threats to our standard of living. For decades, there has been continuous search for affordable, and visible-light active photocatalyst that is capable of harnessing the full potential of sunlight. Herein, a photocatalyst based on a series of Co and g-C₃N₄ codoped ZnO photocatalysts were synthesized by chemical co-precipitation method for eosin yellow degradation in water. The functional groups present in the materials were determined by FTIR. Optical analysis of the samples showed a marginal increase in absorbance with a corresponding decrease in optical bandgap from 3.23 – 2.67 eV. The photocatalysis results showed that the maximum photocatalytic performance was observed for the 0.8% Co doped ZnO/g-C₃N₄ system, which degraded 96 % of the dye under visible light in 180 minutes (k = 0.01701 min-¹). The incorporation of Co enhanced ZnO's outstanding photocatalytic activity in the g- C₃N₄-ZnO system.