Modification of Graphitic Carbon Nitride with Hydrogen Peroxide
Petr Praus, Aneta Smýkalová, Kryštof Foniok, Vlastimil Matějka
Abstract
Graphitic carbon nitride (GCN) was synthetized by heating melamine and then it was thermally exfoliated for 1–3 h in air. Both bulk and exfoliated GCN nanomaterials were treated in the 10–30% aqueous solutions of H2O2 for us to study their modification. The light absorption properties were observed by the reddish color and the red-shifts of their UV-Vis spectra. The content of oxygen increased and hydrogen peroxide was supposed to partially oxidize C-OH groups to C=O ones and to form C-O-C groups instead of edge C-NH-C ones. The GCN structure changes were not observed. However, a surface modification of the GCN materials was recognized by their changed photocatalytic activities tested by means of Acid Orange 7 (AO7) and Rhodamines B (RhB), zeta-potentials, and neutralization titration curves.