Synthesis of polymeric 2D-graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanosheets for sustainable photodegradation of organic pollutants
Afroja Banu, Biswajit Sinha, Suranjan Sikdar
Abstract
A superficial, one step thermal polycondensation method has been employed for the manifestation of graphene like graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) catalyst. The as synthesized g-C 3 N 4 was well characterized by SEM and EDAX analysis, XRD, ATR-IR, FTIR, Fluorescence spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and UV-Visible spectroscopy which provide structural, morphological assemblage relating to the structure of g-C 3 N 4 . The g-C 3 N 4 showed that an outstanding photochemical stability, morphology, conductive carbon framework and superior photocatalytic activity. The bang gap value of g-C 3 N 4 is 2.34 eV determined using Tauc plot. Due to low band gap (2.33 eV) and unique morphology which provides high separation and migration ability of the photogenerated charges, the g-C 3 N 4 shows enhanced photocatalytic activity for the removal of many organic dyes such as Rhodamine B (RhB), Crystal Violet (CV), Methylene Blue (MB), Methyl Orange (MO), Naphthol Orange (NO) and a phenol derivative, p-Nitrophenol (p-NP). Among them, RhB dye was degraded almost 81% at 90 min under sunlight irradiation in presence g-C 3 N 4 while other dyes and p-NP was degraded at lower rate. From the experimental data, it was found that MO and p-NP degradation rate was least. The rate constant for degradation of Rh B is 1.1×10 -2 min -1 . Therefore, g-C 3 N 4 can be used as an efficient photocatalyst for waste water treatment by the removal of such organic pollutants.