A simple and rapid route for synthesizing the nanosized g‐C3N4 materials with narrow bandgap and their photocatalytic activity

Abstract

The graphitic carbon nitride (g‐C3N4) materials with many intriguing properties have attracted much attention in photocatalysis. The photocatalytic activity of g‐C3N4 is hindered by serious aggregation and limited exposed active sites. Herein is shown that nanosized g‐C3N4 can be simply obtained by a superfast high‐pressure homogenization approach. The high‐pressure homogenization treatment can provide strong force to cut and/or to exfoliate the bulk g‐C3N4 into nanosized g‐C3N4 with good dispersion. Moreover, choosing different solvents during treatment can cause a different surface structure of as‐prepared nanosized g‐C3N4. In addition, the narrow bandgap properties, the high photogenerated charge carrier separation, and the transport abilities are achieved in as‐prepared nanosized g‐C3N4 because of the retaining conjugated C3N4 system.Specifically, the photocatalytic activities of as‐prepared nanosized g‐C3N4 have been significantly enhanced in terms of degradation of organic dye Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation (10 times higher than that of bulk g‐C3N4). These findings can provide a promising and simple approach to the exfoliation, nanonization, and surface functionalization of 2D layered materials.