Abstract

In this study, a ternary TiO2/g-C3N4/Bi2WO6 nanocomposite was prepared via a facial approach. The final structure was applied as a new photocatalyst for the removal of brilliant green (BG) dye, as a model of organic pollutants, from the aqueous solution. The results of FESEM, EDS with mapping, XRD, FTIR, UV-vis DRS, PL, and EIS analyses further demonstrate the successful establishment of heterojunction between TiO2, g-C3N4, and Bi2WO6. Integration of g-C3N4 and Bi-2- WO6 with TiO2 was remarkably decreased the band gap energy of TiO2 to 2.68 eV (from 3.15 eV). The effects of various experimental factors such as TiO2/g-C3N4/Bi(2)WO(6 & nbsp;)dosage, initial BG concentration, visible irradiation time, and pH on the photocatalyst behavior of TiO2/g-C3N4/Bi2WO6 were investigated by 2(k-1) factorial design. The results of the analysis of variance demonstrate these experimental factors are effective on the BG degradation efficiency. The response surface methodology was applied to achieve the optimization procedure of BG degradation. According to these results, the complete BG removal efficiency was obtained for the optimal conditions of 15.76 mg of TiO2/g-C3N4/Bi2WO6 nanocomposite, an initial BG concentration of 10 ppm, pH of 9, and time duration of 70 min. The improved photocatalytic performance of ternary TiO2/g-C3N4/Bi2WO6 nanocomposite was related to the formation of heterojunction between TiO2, g-C3N4, and Bi2WO6, significant light adsorption ability, and low recombination of photogenerated carriers.& nbsp;(c) 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).