Graphitic carbon nitride (GCN) has attracted much attention due to its many advantages as a kind of photocatalyst, including low cost, easy to prepare, eco-friendly and so on. However, GCN suffers from limited light-absorption capacity and rapid recombination of photogenerated charge carriers. Herein, a new kind of photocatalyst based on GCN has been synthesized by introducing a small molecule compound (maleamide) through a facile thermal polycondensation method (550 ℃ for 180 min) and applied it to photocatalytic removal of bisphenol A (BPA). The optimized GCN-20 (20 mg maleamide in 10 g urea) exhibits the best BPA degradation performance and good stability. The UV–vis test shows that the introduction of maleamide broadens the optical response threshold of GCN from 435 nm to 460 nm. The promoted photocatalytic performance is mainly attributed to enhanced donor-acceptor structure by electron-withdrawing group, which accelerates charge separation and inhibits recombination of free holes and electrons. The active species including superoxide radicals (⋅O2-), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and hydroxyl radicals (⋅OH), play dominant roles in the photocatalytic degradation process.