SBA-15 Templated Mesoporous Graphitic C3N4for Remarkably Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Pollutants under Visible Light

Abstract

Organic pollutants in water have been threatening public and environmental health. Developing efficient and sustainable photocatalysts working for degradation of organic pollutants under visible light becomes a big challenge. In this paper, high-efficiency visible light driven catalyst ordered mesoporous graphite nitride carbon (mpg-C3N4) was prepared by using SBA-15 as template and dicyandiamide (C2H4N4) as precursor. The specific surface area of mpg-C3N4can be increased remarkably as compared to that of the bulk graphite nitrite carbon (g-C3N4) by adjusting the ratio of SBA-15 to dicyandiamide. Photocatalytic performance of mpg-C3N4were evaluated systematically by degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB), malachite green (MG) and tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) under visible light irradiation. The results showed that the mpg-C3N4(1:0.5) has the highest photocatalytic activity and stability and the degradation rate is for RhB, MG and TC are all more than seven times that of bulk g-C3N4. After five recycling runs, the mpg-C3N4(1:0.5) remains high photocatalytic activities for the degradation of MG (94%) and TC (81%), respectively. Additionally, radical trapping experiments certified that the main active species are [Formula: see text] and h[Formula: see text], while the role of [Formula: see text]OH is irrelevant in the reaction processes. This work provides a promising pathway to prepare metal-free photocatalyst for degradation of organic pollutants under visible light irradiation.