Photoelectrochemical performance and S-scheme mechanism of ternary GO/g-C3N4/TiO2 heterojunction photocatalyst for photocatalytic antibiosis and dye degradation under visible light

•The ternary GO/g-C3N4/TiO2 photocatalyst displays 98.18% antibiosis rate of E. coli and 98.84% MB degradation rate under visible light.•The existence of chemical bond C-≡Ti+ between TiO2 and g-C3N4 was demonstrated at the atomic scale.•The S-scheme charge transfer route narrows the band–gap barriers to 2.55 eV.•The adsorption edge was expanded to the 595.02 nm in visible light region.•Promote the photo-generated charges generating and separating, the photocurrent density value was 45.45 times of P25 and 48.39 times of g-C3N4.