Porous Graphitic Nitride Research Articles

One‐step supramolecular pre‐organizational synthesis of copper‐doped porous carbon nitride for high photocatalytic nitrogen fixation

AbstractSolar‐driven reduction of nitrogen to ammonia is a promising green approach and is considered as a sustainable alternative to the Haber–Bosch process. Carbon nitride (g‐C3N4) is an ideal non‐metallic semiconductor photocatalyst for photocatalytic N2 reduction reaction (p‐NRR). In this work, we designed a simple supramolecular self‐assembly method to prepare copper‐doped porous graphitic nitride (Cu@pg‐C3N4) photocatalysts. The synergistic semiconductor and metal interactions enabled the obtained Cu@pg‐C3N4 to achieve larger specific surface area, more efficient photogenerated carrier separation, and stronger photoreduction ability. The specific surface area of Cu@pg‐C3N4 increased from 5.69 to 75.76 μmol/L, exposing more active sites compared to bulk g‐C3N4. The NH4+ production rate of the obtained Cu@pg‐C3N4 was 150.47 μmol/L, which is 20 times higher than that of the bulk carbon nitride, exhibiting excellent N2 photofixation ability. These findings highlight the significant progress that can be achieved by metal supramolecular network modification strategies in harnessing the potential of carbon nitride for photocatalytic reduction applications.

Synthesis, characterization and photodegradation activity of graphitic C3N4-SrTiO3 nanocomposites

Porous graphitic nitride (gC3N4) by template free simple condensation and SrTiO3 nanocubes by sol-gel method were synthesized. Composites containing Different percentages of pGCN were prepared (x% pGCN-ST where x = 5, 10, 30, 50 & 70%). The as synthesized composites were characterized by various instrumental techniques such as X-Ray diffractometer, Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer, BET surface area analyzer, UV Visible diffuse reflectance spectrophotometer, X-Ray photoelectron spectrophotometer, SEM with Energy dispersive X-ray analyzer (SEM/EDAX) and elemental mapping, Transmission electron microscope, Photoluminescence spectrophotometer and Electrochemical impedance. The composite catalysts were evaluated for their photocatalytic degradation of reactive blue 198 (RB 198), reactive black 5 (RB 5) and reactive yellow 145 (RY 145) in the presence of visible irradiation. Among the different composites 50% pGCN-ST catalyst showed remarkable decolourization of all the three dyes under different irradiation (UV, visible and solar). Kinetics studies were revealed that the photodecolourization reaction followed pseudo first order. TOC and COD studies confirmed that the dyes were mineralized significantly. A possible mechanism for photocatalytic degradation was also proposed in this study.