Gaseous bubble-assisted in-situ construction of worm-like porous g-C3N4 with superior visible light photocatalytic performance

Abstract

Metal-free graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) displays benign photocatalytic properties for contaminants photodegradation under visible photoirradiation. Devising a simple modification strategy for the improved photocatalytic activity of g-C3N4 has always been desired. Herein, we report a spherical worm-like g-C3N4 nanostructure via facile ammonium lauryl sulfate (ALS) gaseous bubbles templating approach. This strategy employing ALS as gaseous bubbles templating agent bestowed not only g-C3N4 with improved specific surface areas, a porous structure with more exposed photocatalytic reactive sites and mass diffusion of reactants molecules, but also rendered extended optical absorption range and suppression of the photoinduced charge carriers recombination. As a result, the ALS-mediated g-C3N4 photocatalysts unfolded excellent photocatalytic performance regarding photodegradation of rhodamine B (RhB) and phenol under visible photoirradiation. Additionally, the quenching effects of various scavengers proved that the holes (h+) and superoxide anions (O2−) radicals were the main active species responsible for ameliorated photocatalytic performance for rhodamine B and phenol photodegradation. Our work offers a straightforward approach for developing high-performance metal free photocatalysts with great potential for environmental remediation.