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Ultrathin porous g-CN nanosheets fabricated by direct calcination of pre-treated melamine for enhanced photocatalytic performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2019

Bangtong Zhu ,
Guangqing Xu ,
Xia Li ,
Zhiwei Wang ,
Jun Lv ,
Xia Shu ,
Jun Huang ,
Zhixiang Zheng  and
Yucheng Wu
Bangtong Zhu
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China
Guangqing Xu*
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China; and Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials and Devices of Anhui Province, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China
Xia Li
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China
Zhiwei Wang
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China
Jun Lv
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China; and Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials and Devices of Anhui Province, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China
Xia Shu
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China; and Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials and Devices of Anhui Province, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China
Jun Huang
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China; and Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials and Devices of Anhui Province, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China
Zhixiang Zheng
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China
Yucheng Wu*
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China; Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials and Devices of Anhui Province, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China; and Laboratory of Non-Ferrous Metals and Processing Engineering of Anhui Province, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China
*
a)Address all correspondence to these authors. e-mail: gqxu1979@hfut.edu.cn
b)e-mail: ycwu@hfut.edu.cn
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Abstract

Graphite nitride carbon nanosheets have received more and more attention toward the photocatalytic research and applications. Ultrathin g-CN nanosheets with porous structure were synthesized successfully by thermal calcination of melamine supramolecular complexes, which was obtained by pre-treating melamine in nitric acid solution at different concentrations (0.5–2 mol/L). Effects of HNO3 pre-treatment on the microstructure of supramolecular complexes were studied. The characteristics of g-CN nanosheets were investigated by X-ray diffractometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The degradation performance for RhB and water splitting hydrogen production performance were used to evaluate the photocatalytic performances of g-CN nanosheets. The morphology and microstructure of HNO3/melamine supramolecular complexes are different from those of melamine precursor due to the better arrangement of the melamine units. Ultrathin porous g-CN nanosheets which possess a thickness of less than 2 nm were successfully prepared by calcination of melamine pre-treated with 1.0 mol/L nitric acid. The g-CN(1.0) nanosheets possess the highest photocatalytic degradation performance and water splitting hydrogen production performance due to the effective separation of photogenerated carriers and high specific surface area providing a large number of active sites.

Keywords

catalyticphotochemicalnanostructure
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 34 , Issue 20 , 28 October 2019 , pp. 3462 - 3473
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2019 

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