Abstract
Biohazards are widely present in water, and a variety of waterborne diseases can be aroused by contaminated water. Therefore, the effective removal of biological hazards from water is necessary for the protection of human health. In this study, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) with ordered mesoporous nanostructures was successfully synthesized by a template method using SBA-15 as a hard template. The morphology, crystal structure, specific surface area, molecular structure, and light absorption properties of the as-prepared sample were characterized by TEM, XRD, BET, FT-IR, and UV-Vis DRS, respectively. The photocatalytic performance of the ordered mesoporous g-C3N4 was evaluated by the inactivation of Escherichia coli K-12 in water under visible light irradiation. Results showed that the bacterial inactivation efficiency can reach as high as 99% within 2 h of VL irradiation, which is 4 times higher than that of bulk g-C3N4. Moreover, the photocatalytic bacterial inactivation mechanism was revealed by a scavenging study, and the main active species in the photocatalytic inactivation process was found to be a photogenerated hole. This work will provide useful information for the development of new efficient g-C3N4-based materials for enhanced water disinfection applications by introducing ordered mesoporous nanostructures in a photocatalyst design and fabrication.
Highlights
Water is the most essential substance for the life of all beings
The results showed that no detectable bacterial counts were observed even after 72 h dark incubation, indicating that the E. coli K-12 cells had been completely destroyed by omg-C3N4 rather than suppressing their growth or their ability to reproduce
When the catalyst is added without light irradiation, the bacterial cells still exhibit intense blue fluorescence except for a small amount of red fluorescence resulting from natural cell death, which indicates that the omg-C3N4 is nontoxic to E. coli K-12 (Figure 10(b))
Summary
Water is the most essential substance for the life of all beings. It is of major importance to human civilization and at the core of sustainable development. For the successful application of photocatalytic disinfection technology, the development of cost-effective photocatalysts has been the central mission. Among various carbon nitride materials, an ordered mesoporous structure endows the materials with a high specific surface area and pore structures which has already been demonstrated as a successful way to enhance charge separation efficiency, as well as the mass diffusion/transfer during photocatalytic reactions. It can greatly enhance the photocatalytic performance of semiconductor materials [23,24,25,26] including the organic pollutant degradation. The photocatalytic bacterial inactivation mechanisms were investigated in detail
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