Design of Co-doped carbon nitride based on melem supramolecular assembly with enhanced photocatalytic activity toward tetracycline hydrochloride degradation

Abstract

We design highly-active porous Co-doped carbon nitride (CN) rod by a facile thermal condensation of melem supramolecular assembly incorporated with Co species. The highly thermal-stable H-bonded melem supramolecule enables less and slow sublimation during the thermal condensation process, ensuring good microstructural integrality of the CN skeleton for the migration of photogenerated carriers. And the Co doping can further modulate the electronic, optical, and catalytic properties of the catalyst. The best-performing Co-doped CN catalyst demonstrates desirable performance toward the photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride (10.3 times higher than that of bulk CN) and good cycling stability maintaining 80.0 % after 5 reuses.