Band gap engineering is an intricate aspect in the domain of photocatalysis which vastly impacts the performance of catalysts. This study demonstrates how solvents can be incorporated in photocatalytic schemes to play the role of functionally active components to enhance the performance. Herein, a series of DESs with different metallic entities (Zn, Cu, Ni and Ce) were designed and strategically hybridized with a model photocatalyst, g-C3N4. The g-C3N4/Zn system showed the best structural and morphological traits compared to other developed systems, which rendered it with the best photocatalytic attributes. It exhibited the best photocatalytic performance toward both the model pollutants, tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) and methylene blue (MB). Precisely, activity enhancement of 30% and 33% was obtained with the g-C3N4/Zn system for MB and TC compared to unmodified g-C3N4. The electronic structure investigation of the developed catalytic systems pointed toward an intricate coordination. For instance, in the best performing g-C3N4/Zn system, a Z-scheme type mechanism was deduced between DES and the g-C3N4. Based on the investigations, a plausible mechanism has been proposed to holistically explain the role of DESs in enhancing the photocatalytic performance of the system.
Negi et al. (Mon,) studied this question.