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Schematic representation of molecular mechanism along with pictorial representation of ESR spectra of Cu-ZnO/gC 3 N 4 OH and O 2 radical's. [Display omitted] • The novel and facile Cu-ZnO/gC 3 N 4 heterostructure synthesised by closed system microwave hydrothermal method. • Photocatalytic degradation of RhB and MO by S-scheme mechanism. • The present study aids as base-line data for future direct bandgap photocatalytic estimations. Noble metal-free nanomaterials have an enormous attraction in the field of the photocatalyst. In this work, copper-induced ZnO/gC 3 N 4 photocatalyst has been synthesized by an environmental friendly closed system of microwave hydrothermal method. A variety of analytical methods were used for the analysis of the photocatalytic properties of the synthesized photocatalyst. Where the Cu-ZnO/gC 3 N 4 shows high photoresponse in visible light towards the degradation of dyes such as Rh-B and MO with a high-efficiency of 98 % and 99 % respectively. The 3 wt% copper in the CZC3 photocatalyst was in charge of high percentage degradation having very low bandgap of 1.97 eV and high electron-hole charge separation rate for extended light response ranges. The electron transfer direction of between Cu-ZnO and gC 3 N 4 are measured, their work functions are 4.84 eV, 3.94 eV, respectively. The mechanism was explained based on the S-scheme charge migration technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]