Tuning band structure of graphitic carbon nitride for efficient degradation of sulfamethazine: Atmospheric condition and theoretical calculation

Numerous approaches have been used to modify graphitic carbon nitride（g-C₃N₄） for improving its photocatalytic activity. In this study, we demonstrated a facial post-calcination method for modified graphitic carbon nitride（g-C₃N₄-Ar/Air） to direct tuning band structure, i.e., bandgap and positions of conduction band（CB）/valence band（VB）, through the control of atmospheric condition without involving any additional elements or metals or semiconductors. ...     

凹凸棒土/g-C3N4-Pt/聚苯胺复合材料的制备及其可见光催化性能

石墨氮化碳(g?C₃N₄)是一种窄带隙的n型半导体材料,具有可见光降解有机污染物能力;凹凸棒土(ATP)具有很强的表面活性和吸附能力,可作为催化剂的载体。我们以g?C₃N₄和ATP杂化材料(ATP/g?C₃N₄)为基础,通过简单的化学还原法将纳米Pt颗粒沉积到ATP/g?C₃N₄表面,随后利用纳米金属Pt颗粒催化苯胺无电聚合,促使聚苯胺(PANI)在ATP/g?C₃N₄表面或孔道中原位生成,获得ATP/g?C₃N₄?Pt/PANI复合材料。以阴离子染料甲基橙(MO)为模型体系,考察了复合材料的可见光催化性能。研究表明,共轭结构的PANI和g?C₃N₄在复合材料中保持完好,说明其具有良好的兼容性。由于多组分材料之间的协同效应,使得ATP/g?C₃N₄?Pt/PANI纳米复合材料具有卓越的光催化性能。可见光光照80 min后,对20 mg·L^-1 MO溶液的降解率达96.3%,而且循环5次后,其降解率仍保持在93.5%。     

类石墨相氮化碳改性研究进展

类石墨相氮化碳(g-C3N4)是一种不含金属的半导体材料,它具有制备方法简单、合成原材料价格低廉、含量丰富,具有很好的物理化学性质及热稳定性等优点,并且其较窄的禁带宽度满足可以直接吸收一部分可见光的要求,这些特有的优势使其一度成为人们研究和关注的焦点.然而,它的比表面积小、光生电子和空穴复合率高以及可见光利用率不足等弊...     

Exploring recent advances in silver halides and graphitic carbon nitride-based photocatalyst for energy and environmental applications

Engineering visible light active photocatalytic systems for renewable energy production and environmental remediation has always been a promising technology to counter overall energy demands and pollution challenges. As a fascinating conjugated polymer graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) has been developed as a hotspot in the research field as a metal-free semiconducting material with the appealing band gap of 2.7 eV. Recently, g-C₃N₄ has gained tremendous interest in photocatalytic wastewater abatement as well as for hydrogen (H₂) generation, carbon dioxide (CO₂) reduction, and pollutant degradation, under exposure to visible light. Plasmonic silver halides (AgX) such as AgCl, AgBr, and AgI as plasmonic photocatalyst have received immense research interest owing to their escalating photocatalytic efficacy and strong surface plasmon resonance effect (SPR). AgX is the photosensitive, broad bandgap semiconducting materials with effectual antimicrobial properties. This review summarizes the heterostructure of carbonaceous g-C₃N₄ with plasmonic AgX, to reduce the recombination of photo-generated charge carriers, thus enhancing the natural light absorption. g-C₃N₄ grafted AgX nanoarchitectures can be utilized for several potential applications, for instance, overall water splitting (OWS), CO₂ conversion to hydrocarbon fuels, pollutant exclusion, and antibacterial disinfection. This review focuses on the evolution of g-C₃N₄ as well as AgX, facile, and synthetic routes for fabrication of g-C₃N₄ tailored AgX, construction of nano-junctions (AgX/g-C₃N₄) with various photocatalytic applications. Finally, we provided a viewpoint of current hassles and some perceptions of novel trends in this exciting as well as developing research arena.     

A simple and rapid route for synthesizing the nanosized g-C3N4 materials with narrow bandgap and their photocatalytic activity

The graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) materials with many intriguing properties have attracted much attention in photocatalysis. The photocatalytic activity of g-C₃N₄ is hindered by serious aggregation and limited exposed active sites. Herein is shown that nanosized g-C₃N₄ can be simply obtained by a superfast high-pressure homogenization approach. The high-pressure homogenization treatment can provide strong force to cut and/or to exfoliate the bulk g-C₃N₄ into nanosized g-C₃N₄ with good dispersion. Moreover, choosing different solvents during treatment can cause a different surface structure of as-prepared nanosized g-C₃N₄. In addition, the narrow bandgap properties, the high photogenerated charge carrier separation, and the transport abilities are achieved in as-prepared nanosized g-C₃N₄ because of the retaining conjugated C₃N₄ system. Specifically, the photocatalytic activities of as-prepared nanosized g-C₃N₄ have been significantly enhanced in terms of degradation of organic dye Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation (10 times higher than that of bulk g-C₃N₄). These findings can provide a promising and simple approach to the exfoliation, nanonization, and surface functionalization of 2D layered materials.     

Mesoporous graphitic carbon nitride materials: synthesis and modifications

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄), as a kind of polymeric semiconductor that has unique electronic structure and excellent chemical stability, has attracted increasing attention of researchers. Moreover, the raw materials for the preparation of g-C₃N₄ are various and easily accessible. All of these have provided favorable advantages for the fast development of g-C₃N₄. Compared to bulk g-C₃N₄, mesoporous g-C₃N₄ has more prominent natures, such as high specific surface area, large pore volume, and the increased amount of surface active sites. Therefore, great efforts have been devoted to develop mesoporous g-C₃N₄ (MCN). Up to now, many methods have been explored for the synthesis of MCN, such as hard-template method, soft-template method, template-free method, sol–gel method, and so on. Among these methods, the hard template method is used most widely. In this paper, the recent research on the synthesis of MCN was reviewed. In addition, the modifications to the obtained MCN, which lead to performance enhancement of the MCN for better applications, were also summarized.     

Two-dimensional g-C3N4 nanosheets-based photo-catalysts for typical sustainable processes

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) has been widely studied as a visible light responsive photocatalyst in recent years, due to its facile synthesis, low cost, high stability, and appropriate bandgap/band positions. In this review, we firstly introduce and compare various exfoliation approaches of bulk g-C₃N₄ into ultrathin g-C₃N₄ nanosheets. Then, many modification strategies of g-C₃N₄ nanosheets are also reviewed, including heterojunction construction, doping, defect control, and structure design. Thereafter, the charge transfer mechanism in g-C₃N₄ nanosheets based heterojunctions is present, e.g., Z-scheme, S-scheme and other forms. Besides, the photocatalytic applications of g-C₃N₄ nanosheets based photocatalysts are summarized including environmental remediation, energy generation and storage, organic synthesis, and disinfection. This review ends with a summary and some perspectives on the challenges and new directions in exploring g-C₃N₄ nanosheets-based photocatalysts.     

Ag nanoparticles loaded on porous graphitic carbon nitride with enhanced photocatalytic activity for degradation of phenol

Highly efficient photocatalyst of visible-light-driven Ag nanoparticles loaded on porous graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) was prepared by the reduction of Ag ions on porous g-C₃N₄. The obtained Ag/porous g-C₃N₄ composite products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), UV-vis diffuse reflection spectra (DRS), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The results demonstrated that a homogeneous distribution of Ag NPs of 10 nm was attached onto the surface of the porous g-C₃N₄. The prepared Ag/porous g-C₃N₄ samples were applied for catalyzing the degradation of phenol in water under visible light irradiation. Porous g-C₃N₄ demonstrated an excellent support for the formation and dispersion of small uniform Ag NPs. When the weight percentage of Ag reaches 5%, the nanohybrid exhibits superior photocatalytic activities compared to bulk g-C₃N₄, porous g-C₃N₄, and 2% Ag/porous g-C₃N₄ hybrids. The enhanced photocatalytic performance is due to the synergic effect between Ag and porous g-C₃N₄, which suppressed the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs.     

Two-dimensional polymeric carbon nitride: structural engineering for optimizing photocatalysis

As a two-dimensional (2D) material, polymeric carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) nanosheet holds great potentials in environmental purification and solar energy conversion. In this review, we summarized latest progress in the optimization of photocatalytic performance in 2D g-C₃N₄. Some of the latest structural engineering methods were summed up, where the relevant influences on the behaviors of photoinduced species were emphasized. Furthermore, the construction strategies for band structure modulation and charge separation promotion were then discussed in detail. A brief discussion on the opportunity and challenge of 2D g-C₃N₄-based photocatalysis are presented as the conclusion of this review.     

Efficient Z-scheme g-C3N4/MoO3 heterojunction photocatalysts decorated with carbon quantum dots: improved visible-light absorption and charge separation

Z-scheme heterojunction photocatalysts based on g-C₃N₄ generally need to recombine g-C₃N₄ and a wide bandgap semiconductor. This structure is limited by the large bandgap of the constituent material, which can effectively suppress carrier recombination while limiting the absorption of visible light. Due to the superior up-conversion photoluminescence properties of the carbon quantum dots (CQDs), this dilemma can be solved ingeniously by adding CQDs to the composite. Moreover, the charge reservoirs of CQDs are conducive to the charge carrier separation effect. In this work, a novel CQDs-modified Z-type photocatalyst is constructed and the successful implantation of CQDs is demonstrated. The composite catalyst exhibits broad-spectrum response to visible light and the overall performance is obviously superior to that of the binary MoO₃/g-C₃N₄ heterojunction. The high efficiency and versatility of the degradation imply that the newly prepared CQDs/g-C₃N₄/MoO₃ is a versatile photocatalyst for the removal of various target pollutants in the environment.

     

碳化MoS2/掺硫g-C3N4异质结的合成及其在可见光下催化降解罗丹明B机理

为了进一步提高聚合物半导体类石墨相氮化碳（g-C₃N₄）降解有机物的活性,通过简单的水热法复合得到碳化MoS₂/掺硫g-C₃N₄异质结（MoSC/S-CN）,并在可见光下研究其罗丹明B （RhB）的降解性能。结果表明,相较于纯g-C₃N₄,最优化的MoSC/S-CN样品对可见光的吸收范围得到明显拓宽,并且在100 min内对RhB的降解效率为92.5%,比纯g-C₃N₄性能提高68.83%。一系列的结构和光学性质表明,掺硫后再进一步与碳化MoS₂耦合可以协同作用于g-C₃N₄,改善g-C₃N₄的能带结构,加速光生电子空穴对的分离,有效提高光催化活性。     

Photocatalytic Reduction of Cr (VI) over g-C3N4 Photocatalysts Synthesized by Different Precursors

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) photocatalysts were synthesized via a one-step pyrolysis process using melamine, dicyandiamide, thiourea, and urea as precursors. The obtained g-C₃N₄ materials exhibited a significantly different performance for the photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI) under white light irradiation, which is attributed to the altered structure and occupancies surface groups. The urea-derived g-C₃N₄ with nanosheet morphology, large specific surface area, and high occupancies of surface amine groups exhibited superior photocatalytic activity. The nanosheet morphology and large surface area facilitated the separation and transmission of charge, while the high occupancies of surface amine groups promoted the formation of hydrogen adsorption atomic centers which were beneficial to Cr(VI) reduction. Moreover, the possible reduction pathway of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) over the urea-derived g-C₃N₄ was proposed and the reduction process was mainly initiated by a direct reduction of photogenerated electrons.     

Graphitic carbon nitride embedded hydrogels for enhanced gel electrophoresis

Here, we show, for the first time, the use of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) nanosheets to improve the resolution and efficiency of protein separation in gel electrophoresis. By loading 0.04% (m/v) g-C₃N₄ nanosheets into the polyacrylamide gel at 25 °C, the thermal conductivity increased approximately 80% which resulted in 20% reduction in Joule heating and overall increase of separation efficiency. Also, polymerization of acrylamide occurred in the absence of tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED) when the polyacrylamide gel contained g-C₃N₄ nanosheets. Hence, the g-C₃N₄ act simultaneously as a polymerization catalyst as well as heat sinks to lower Joule heating effect on band broadening.     

In-situ polymerization for PPy/g-C3N4 composites with enhanced visible light photocatalytic performance

Polypyrrole-modified graphitic carbon nitride composites (PPy/g-C₃N₄) are fabricated using an in-situ polymerization method to improve the visible light photocatalytic activity of g-C₃N₄. The PPy/g-C₃N₄ is applied to the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) under visible light irradiation. Various characterization techniques are employed to investigate the relationship between the structural properties and photoactivities of the as-prepared composites. Results show that the specific surface area of the PPy/g-C₃N₄ composites increases upon assembly of the amorphous PPy nanoparticles on the g-C₃N₄ surface. Owing to the strong conductivity, the PPy can be used as a transition channel for electrons to move onto the g-C₃N₄ surface, thus inhibiting the recombination of photogenerated carriers of g-C₃N₄ and improving the photocatalytic performance. The elevated light adsorption of PPy/g-C₃N₄ composites is attributed to the strong absorption coefficient of PPy. The composite containing 0.75 wt% PPy exhibits a photocatalytic efficiency that is 3 times higher than that of g-C₃N₄ in 2 h. Moreover, the degradation kinetics follow a pseudo-first-order model. A detailed photocatalytic mechanism is proposed with ·OH and ·O₂^? radicals as the main reactive species. The present work provides new insights into the mechanistic understanding of PPy in PPy/g-C₃N₄ composites for environmental applications.     

多孔纳米片状石墨相氮化碳的制备及其可见光催化

以三聚氰胺和硫脲为前驱体,通过简易的氧气刻蚀制备了多孔纳米片状氮化碳。相比于三聚氰胺制备的薄片状氮化碳（MCNS）,以硫脲制备的多孔纳米片状的g-C₃N₄（TCNS）片层更薄,其单片厚度约为30 nm,且TCNS的层状结构明显,能带隙约为3.03 eV,高于石墨相氮化碳（2.77 eV）,更宽的禁带赋予载流子更强的氧化还原能力。较大的比表面积（114 m²·g^-1）可以提供更多的活性位点,同时纳米片状结构可以促进电子与空穴的有效分离和转移,且能有效地降低光生载流子的复合率,因而TCNS具有更高的光催化活性。     

Tuning of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) for photocatalysis: A critical review

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) is a remarkable semiconductor catalyst that has attracted widespread attention as a visible light photo-responsive, metal-free, low-cost photocatalytic material. Pristine g-C₃N₄ suffers fast recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, low surface area, and insufficient visible light absorption, resulting in low photocatalytic efficiency. This review presents the recent progress, perspectives, and persistent challenges in the development of g-C₃N₄-based photocatalytic materials. Several approaches employed to improve the visible light absorption of the materials including metal and non-metal doping, co-doping, and heterojunction engineering have been extensively discussed. These approaches, in general, were found to decrease the material’s bandgap, increase the surface area, reduce charge carrier recombination, and promote visible light absorption, thereby enhancing the overall photocatalytic performance. The material has been widely used for different applications such as photocatalytic hydrogen production, water splitting, CO₂ conversion, and water purification. The work has also identified various limitations and weaknesses associated with the material that hinders its maximum utilization under visible illumination and presented state-of-the-art solutions that have been reported recently. The summary presented in this review would add an invaluable contribution to photocatalysis research and facilitate the development of efficient visible light-responsive semiconducting materials.     

多孔纳米片状石墨相氮化碳的制备及其可见光催化

以三聚氰胺和硫脲为前驱体,通过简易的氧气刻蚀制备了多孔纳米片状氮化碳。相比于三聚氰胺制备的薄片状氮化碳(MCNS),以硫脲制备的多孔纳米片状的g-C_3N_4(TCNS)片层更薄,其单片厚度约为30 nm,且TCNS的层状结构明显,能带隙约为3.03 eV,高于石墨相氮化碳(2.77 eV),更宽的禁带赋予载流子更强的氧化还原能力。较大的比表面积(114 m~2·g~(-1))可以提供更多的活性位点,同时纳米片状结构可以促进电子与空穴的有效分离和转移,且能有效地降低光生载流子的复合率,因而TCNS具有更高的光催化活性。     

NiS2/NiFe LDH/g-C3N4 ternary heterostructure-based label-free photoelectrochemical aptasensing for highly sensitive determination of enrofloxacin

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) aptasensor based on photoactive species with remarkable and stable PEC response is a rising analytical method to implement highly efficient and sensitive detection of residual antibiotics in the field of food. Herein, NiS₂/NiFe-layered double/graphitic carbon nitride (NiS₂/NiFe LDH/g-C₃N₄) ternary heterostructure designed by the surface vulcanization of flower-like NiFe LDH/g-C₃N₄ was used for developing a label-free PEC aptasensing platform to detect enrofloxacin (ENR). The introduction of NiS₂ with narrow bandgap can strengthen the light harvesting of solar energy, producing large amounts of photoinduced carriers. NiS₂ as the electrons conduction bridge further accelerates the transmission efficiency of electrons in contrast to binary heterojunction, endowing ternary heterostructure with superior photocurrent signal. A label-free PEC aptasensor detected ENR with an amplified detection signal because of the oxidation of ENR molecules by photoinduced holes. This PEC aptasensing platform of ENR manifested a wide detection range from 3.6 × 10^?7 to 30 ng/mL with a low detection limit of 1.2 × 10^?7 ng/mL as well as can provide a sensitive and stable analysis with feasible application to monitor milk and honey samples. This design can open the utilization of ternary heterostructure by surface vulcanization to improve the sensitivity of PEC aptasensing platform for monitoring environmental pollutants.     

石墨相氮化碳的化学合成及应用

石墨相氮化碳(g-C₃N₄)具有独特的电子结构和优异的化学稳定性, 近年来不仅被作为不含金属组分的催化剂和催化剂载体, 广泛地应用于有机官能团的选择性转换、光催化分解水、氧还原和Au、Pd、Ag、Pt等贵金属的负载, 还被作为绿色储能材料和硬模板剂用于H₂、CO₂的存储和纳米金属氮(氧)化物的制备等, 在能源和材料相关领域逐渐引起人们的关注. 本文将从材料的制备和应用角度,综述国内外同行近年来在g-C₃N₄研究中所取得的一些重要进展, 并对其未来发展趋势,特别是在能源和环境领域中的应用进行了展望.     

高压放电-光催化剂体系中低温等离子对g-C_3N_4的影响（英文）

高压放电能产生物理和化学效应,如高能电子(e*)、电场、紫外光、可见光和活性物质(·OH,H·,O·,·O_2~-,O_3,N·,NO_x)等,这些放电效应直接或间接应用于污染物的去除和材料的表面改性.在环境领域中,很多研究都关注于高压放电体系中活性物质的产生和利用,而忽视了物理作用,致使处理污染物的能量利用效率不高.近年来,为了提升能量效率,在放电系统中添加光催化剂的研究越来越多.放电产生的物理和化学效应提升了活性物质的产量,从而增强污染物的去除效率.然而,关于高压放电产生的活性物质和物理效应对光催化剂的影响缺乏研究.g-C_3N_4光催化剂是无毒、耐高温、低成本的非金属半导体,在环境与能源方面应用较广,但至今研究g-C_3N_4与低温等离子体协同处理污染物较少.为了使等离子体-g-C_3N_4系统能在环境中得到应用,首要解决的是高压放电对光催化剂影响的问题,从而为后期的研究奠定基础.本研究选用放电均匀、稳定、能产生高电子密度的介质阻挡放电(DBD)对g-C_3N_4进行处理.在不同电气参数(放电电压和放电时间)对g-C_3N_4进行处理,用处理前后的g-C_3N_4光催化降解10mg/L的亚甲基蓝检测其光催化活性,并对其表面的物理结构和化学特征进行表征.结果发现在低放电电压的长时间放电会降低g-C_3N_4的催化活性,而在高放电电压的较短时间内会增强光催化剂的催化性能,随着放电时间的延长,催化活性会先降低再上升.根据XPS表征结果,放电处理后的g-C_3N_4表面有化学键的破坏和新键的形成.在放电处理过程中,加入光催化剂会增强放电强度,而且亲水官能团(-OH,-COOH,-NO_2)的增加也会使放电强度增强,这与光催化剂对放电间隙的空间电荷吸附量有关.结合g-C_3N_4表面表征结果,发现g-C_3N_4的表面物理结构随着放电时间的延长层层破坏,其表面化学官能团也发生周期性变化,这些变化都会影响g-C_3N_4的光催化剂活性.如果等离子体-g-C_3N_4系统要应用于环境治理,光催化剂需避免与放电间隙接触,使光催化剂既能利用高压放电产生的光和其他物理效应,也能不受到低温等离子体的影响.