A simple approach for controlling the morphology of g-C3N4 nanosheets with enhanced photocatalytic properties

Abstract

In this work, we focus on synthesizing g-C3N4 nanosheets with a large surface area for enhanced solar light photocatalytic performance via a simple thermal polymerization of a low-cost urea precursor in enclosed conditions. The effects of annealing duration on the phase formation, structure, and optical and photocatalytic properties of the g-C3N4 nanosheets were investigated. The characterization analysis revealed that g-C3N4 nanosheets with different textures, including stacked-layer, porous and ultrathin morphologies, were obtained by controlling the annealing time. The prepared g-C3N4 samples offer a large specific surface area, narrow band gap and efficient separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs with increasing annealing duration. The photocatalytic properties of the as-synthesized g-C3N4 samples were examined by measuring the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under simulated solar irradiation. With a 100% RhB solution (10 ppm) decomposed by exposure to solar irradiation for 60 min, ultrathin g-C3N4 shows considerable potential in practical applications concerning environmental remediation, especially in large-scale applications in industry.