Mesoporous metal-containing carbon nitrides for improved photocatalytic activities

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-c3n 4) 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-c 3n4 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. © 2013 jie luo et al.