Preparation of carbon nitride nanoparticles by nanoprecipitation method with high yield and enhanced photocatalytic activity

As an emerging 2D conjugated material, graphitic carbon nitride (CN) has attracted great research attention as important catalytic medium for transforming solar energy. Nanostructure modulation of CN is an effective way to improve catalytic activities and has been extensively investigated, but remains challenging due to complex processes, time consuming or low yield. Here, taking advantage of recent discovered good solvents for CN, a nanoprecipitation approach using poor solvents is proposed for preparation of CN nanoparticles (CN NPs). With simple processes of CN dissolution and precipitation, we can quickly synthesize CN NPs (~40 nm) with a yield of up to 50%, the highest one to the best of our knowledge. As an example of potential applications, the as-prepared CN NPs were applied to photocatalytic degradation of dyes with an evident boosted performance up to 2.5 times. This work would open a new way for batch preparation of nanostructured CN and pave its large-scale industrial applications.