Enhanced photocatalytic activity of g-C3N4 2D nanosheets through thermal exfoliation using dicyandiamide as precursor

• Published in: Ceramics international Vol. 44; no. 17; pp. 20613 - 20619
• Main Authors: Yang, Lirong, Liu, Xiaoyu, Liu, Zhigang, Wang, Chunmei, Liu, Gang, Li, Qinglong, Feng, Xiaoxin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-12-2018
• Subjects: Dicyandiamide; g-C3N4 2D nanosheets; Photocatalytic activity; Precursor; Thermal exfoliation; Photocatalytic activity; Thermal exfoliation; g-C3N4 2D nanosheets; Precursor; Dicyandiamide
• ISSN: 0272-8842; 1873-3956
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ceramint.2018.06.105

g-C3N4 has received extensive attention because of its good chemical stability and environmental friendliness. Since g-C3N4 prepared from various precursors had different photocatalytic activities, g-C3N4 materials marked as U-gCN, D-gCN and M-gCN were synthesized from various precursors of urea, dicyandiamide and melamine, respectively. The D-gCN and M-gCN with smaller surface area were heated again to obtain exfoliated g-C3N4 with 2D nanosheet morphology and larger specific surface area named D-gCN-L and M-gCN-L, respectively. The synthesized bulk g-C3N4 and g-C3N4 2D nanosheets were characterized by XRD, SEM, BET, PL, UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, XPS, zeta potential and TG. The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) was carried out on U-gCN, D-gCN, M-gCN, D-gCN-L and M-gCN-L, and D-gCN-L shows the highest photocatalytic degradation performance because of its larger specific surface area, lower electron-hole recombination and wide light absorption range.