In situ growth g-C3N4 particles on carbon fiber cloth as flexible and easily reusable visible-light-driven photocatalysts

Abstract

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) powder has been extensively applied for photocatalysis, while its practical application is impeded by reusability problems. To solve this issue, we have fabricated flexible and easily recyclable photocatalysts by in situ growing g-C3N4 on carbon fiber cloth (CFc) via dip-coating and following a pyrolysis method. The obtained cloth (area: 4 cm × 4 cm) consisted of carbon fiber (diameter: ∼20 μm) bunches covered by g-C3N4 nanoparticles. CFc/g-C3N4 exhibits a broad absorption spectrum with an absorption edge of 460 nm. CFc/g-C3N4 can degrade 94.8 % Rhodamine B (RhB) in 80 min and 97.3 % parachlorophenol (4-CP) in 100 min reaction, respectively under visible light illumination. Moreover, CFc/g-C3N4 maintains good photocatalytic efficiency of 89.7 % after four times recycling tests. Therefore, CFc/g-C3N4 has the potential for practical photocatalysis application.