g-C(3)N(4)/Ca(2)Fe(2)O(5) heterostructures for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of organic effluents under sunlight

g-C(3)N(4)/Ca(2)Fe(2)O(5) heterostructures were successfully prepared by incorporating g-C(3)N(4) into Ca(2)Fe(2)O(5) (CFO). As prepared g-C(3)N(4)/CFO heterostructures were initially utilized to photodegrade organic effluent Methylene blue (MB) for optimization of photodegradation performance. 50% g-C(3)N(4) content in CFO composition showed an enhanced photodegradation efficiency (~ 96%) over g-C(3)N(4) (48.15%) and CFO (81.9%) due to mitigation of recombination of photogenerated charge carriers by Type-II heterojunction. The optimized composition of heterostructure was further tested for degradation of Bisphenol-A (BPA) under direct sunlight, exhibiting enhanced photodegradation efficiency of about 63.1% over g-C(3)N(4) (17%) and CFO (45.1%). The photoelectrochemical studies at various potentials with and without light illumination showed significant improvement in photocurrent response for g-C(3)N(4)/Ca(2)Fe(2)O(5) heterostructures (~ 1.9 mA) over CFO (~ 67.4 μA). These studies revealed efficient solar energy harvesting ability of g-C(3)N(4)/Ca(2)Fe(2)O(5) heterostructures to be utilized for organic effluent treatment.