Highly efficient pollutant removal of graphitic carbon nitride by the synergistic effect of adsorption and photocatalytic degradation

Abstract

Environmental remediation based on semiconducting materials offers a green solution for pollution control in water. Herein, we report a novel graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) by one-step polycondensation of urea. The novel g-C₃N₄ material with a surface area of 114 m² g^-1 allowed the repetitive adsorption of the rhodamine B (RhB) dye and facilitated its complete photocatalytic degradation upon light irradiation in 20 min. This study provides new insights into the fabrication of g-C₃N₄-based materials and facilitates their potential application in the synergistic removal of harmful organic pollutants in the field of water purification.

Fig. 1. A schematic of the preparation of novel g-C₃N₄ and its excellent degradation efficiency via synergistic adsorption and degradation.

Fig. 2. The (a) XRD patterns and (b) FT-IR spectra of the two samples.

Fig. 3. The high-resolution N 1s XPS spectra and C 1s XPS spectra of the two samples.

Fig. 4. The (a) N₂ adsorption–desorption isotherms and (b) BJH pore-size distribution curves obtained for two different samples.

Fig. 5. The SEM patterns of the two different samples.

Fig. 6. The (a) UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectra and (b) PL emission spectra at an excitation wavelength of 350 nm of the two different samples.

Fig. 7. The (a) VB XPS spectra and (b) electronic band structures of the two different samples.

Fig. 8. (a) The adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of RhB. (b) The cycling tests for the adsorption and photocatalytic degradation of RhB using U-300.

Fig. 9. A schematic of the synergistic adsorption and photocatalytic degradation processes.