Enhancing the photocatalytic activity of bulk g-C₃N₄ by introducing mesoporous structure and hybridizing with graphene

Bulk graphitic carbon nitride (CN) suffers from small surface area and high recombination of charge carriers, which result in low photocatalytic activity. To enhance the activity of g- C₃N₄, the surface area should be enlarged and charge carrier separation should be promoted. In this work, a combined strategy was employed to dramatically enhance the activity of bulk g- C₃N₄ by simultaneously introducing mesoporous structure and hybridizing with graphene/graphene oxide. The mesoporous g- C₃N₄/graphene (MCN-G) and mesoporous g- C₃N₄/graphene oxide (MCN-GO) nanocomposites with enhanced photocatalytic activity (NO removal ratio of 64.9% and 60.7%) were fabricated via a facile sonochemical method. The visible light-harvesting ability of MCN-G and MCN-GO hybrids was enhanced and the conduction band was negatively shifted when 1.0 wt% graphene/graphene oxide was incorporated into the matrix of MCN. As electronic conductive channels, the G/GO sheets could efficiently facilitate the separation of chare carriers. MCN-G and MCN-GO exhibited drastically enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity toward NO removal. The NO removal ratio increased from 16.8% for CN to 64.9% for MCN-G and 60.7% for MCN-GO. This enhanced photocatalytic activity could be attributed to the increased surface area and pore volume, improved visible light utilization, enhanced reduction power of electrons, and promoted separation of charge carriers. This work demonstrates that a combined strategy is extremely effective for the development of active photocatalysts in environmental and energetic applications. Copyright © 2014 Published by Elsevier Inc.