Filling foaming agent into stacked layers: Rapid synthesis of graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets decorated with ultrafined MXY (X = O, S) nanoparticles for enhanced photoresponsive abilities

Abstract

Exfoliation of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) into ultrathin nanosheets is usually the first step for its perspective applications. In contrast to the traditional time-consuming ultrasonication approach, a rapid and high-yield method to synthesis g-C3N4 nanosheets is desirable. In this study, we develop an efficiency and versatile strategy to exfoliate bulk g-C3N4 into 2D ultrathin nanosheets by combining foaming agent inserting with microwave digestion method. The proposed method significantly reduces the exfoliation time and can be further utilized to produce metal oxides (MOY) or metal sulfide (MSY) decorated g-C3N4 nanosheets. The as-formed ultrafined ZnO nanocrystals decorated g-C3N4 nanosheets (ZnO/g-C3N4) exhibit excellent solubility and dual-emission optical property, which can be served as fluorescence probes for metal ion sensing. The resulted CdS/g-C3N4 decorated nanosheets demonstrate efficient photocatalytic properties, having great potentials in photodegradation application. This protocol can be a general strategy for the synthesis of g-C3N4 nanosheets as well as attractive in preparing a lot of functional hybrid nanosheets for future applications in sensing probes, solar cells, photoelectrical devices and water treatment.