Mesoporous Metal-Containing Carbon Nitrides for Improved Photocatalytic Activities

Abstract

Graphitic carbon nitrides (g-C3N4) have attracted increasing interest due to their unusual properties and promising applications in water splitting, heterogeneous catalysis, and organic contaminant degradation. In this study, a new method was developed for the synthesis of mesoporous Fe contained g-C3N4 (m-Fe-C3N4) photocatalyst by using SiO2 nanoparticles as hard template and dicyandiamide as precursor. The physicochemical properties of m-Fe-C3N4 were thoroughly investigated. The XRD and XPS results indicated that Fe was strongly coordinated with the g-C3N4 matrix and that the doping and mesoporous structure partially deteriorated its crystalline structure. The UV-visible absorption spectra revealed that m-Fe-C3N4 with a unique electronic structure displays an increased band gap in combination with a slightly reduced absorbance, implying that mesoporous structure modified the electronic properties of g-Fe-C3N4. The photocatalytic activity of m-Fe-C3N4 for photodegradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) was much higher than that of g-Fe-C3N4, clearly demonstrating porous structure positive effect.