Construction of mesoporous g-C3N4/TiO2 nanocrystals with enhanced photonic efficiency

Abstract

Ease synthesis of mesoporous g-C3N4/TiO2 nanocrystals at various C3N4 contents (1–50 wt%) was performed by mixing tetrabutyl orthotitanate and g-C3N4 throughout sol-gel avenue with existence template. The photooxidation of the herbicide imazapyr was chosen as a probe molecule to explore the photocatalytic performance of the prepared photocatalysts compared to that of the commercially P-25 along with g-C3N4. TEM images exhibited that TiO2 nanoparticles have very small particle size in the range of 5–10 nm and g-C3N4 sheet-like nanoparticles possess characteristic for graphitic carbon nitride. The most efficient photocatalyst toward all the prepared samples was 10% g-C3N4/TiO2 nanocrystals. The photonic efficiency of 10% g-C3N4/TiO2 nanocrystals is 100 and 3 times greater than pure g-C3N4 and P-25, respectively. The construction of mesoporous TiO2 and g-C3N4 with heterogeneity produces a synergistic effect that provides an efficient charge carriers transfer. The highest photocatalytic efficiency can be explained by large surface area, narrow band gap energy, small particles size, and efficient charge carriers’ separation.