g-C3N4 nanosheets exfoliated by green wet ball milling process for photodegradation of organic pollutants

• Published in: Chemical physics letters Vol. 766; p. 138335
• Main Authors: Ma, Zixuan, Zhou, Peiwen, Zhang, Linping, Zhong, Yi, Sui, Xiaofeng, Wang, Bijia, Ma, Yimeng, Feng, Xueling, Xu, Hong, Mao, Zhiping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-03-2021
• Subjects: Dispersibility; g-C3N4 nanosheets; Organic pollutants; Photocatalytic degradation; Wet ball-milling; Photocatalytic degradation; Organic pollutants; g-C3N4 nanosheets; Wet ball-milling; Dispersibility
• ISSN: 0009-2614; 1873-4448
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2021.138335

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•The few layers g-C3N4 nanosheets are exfoliated by green wet ball milling process.•The dispersion of g-C3N4 nanosheets is enhanced by ball milling.•The photodegradation of g-C3N4 nanosheets is impacted by the ball milling speed.•Target pollutants in practical lake water was photodegraded by g-C3N4 nanosheets.
In this study, ultra-thin and easily dispersible g-C3N4 nanosheets were obtained by a simple wet ball-milling process. Morphological and structural analysis showed that increasing ball-milling speed resulted in a decrease in both particle size and the number of stacked layers in g-C3N4 nanosheets, hence improving their dispersion stability. Thinner nanosheets obtained by ball milling at 150 rpm also had higher photocatalytic capacity, with up to 2.2 times enhancement comparing with untreated g-C3N4. The feasibility of the g-C3N4 nanosheets for photodegradation of aqueous organic contaminants was demonstrated using polluted water sampled from Jingyue Lake in Donghua University, a local lake.