Construction of V-doped graphitic carbon nitride with nanotube structure for sustainable photodegradation of tetracycline

Abstract

Low charge separation rate and limited light harvesting ability are the main obstacles for practical applications of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4). Hence, a V doped hollow-nanotube g-C3N4 photocatalysts were prepared by electrospinning, chemical vapor deposition and impregnation pyrolysis method. The photocatalysts exhibited enhanced activity in degrading TC under visible light illumination (λ ≥ 420 nm) than pristine g-C3N4. The 7V-g-C3N4 showed the highest photocatalytic performance, and the reaction rate constant was 0.0071 min−1, which was 3.7 times that of g-C3N4, which could be attributed to the reduce of the recombination of photogenerated electrons and the narrow bandgap. Moreover, the enhanced photocatalytic performance of the as-synthesized catalyst is inseparable from the structure of the catalyst itself. The tubular catalyst was equipped with sufficient active sites and short diffusion distance. This work provides a novel way to fabricate nano-photocatalyst and demonstrates the applicability of V-doped photocatalyst for the utilization of sunlight such as the degradation of organic pollutants.