Title: Carbon microsphere anchored g-C₃N₄ for enhanced photocatalytic properties

Authors: Qingbo Yu; Kuan Yang; Huiqin Li

Addresses: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, 232001, China ' Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, 232001, China ' Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, 232001, China

Abstract: Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) is a new type of semiconductor material with highly physicochemical stability. In this paper, carbon microsphere anchored g-C₃N₄ composites were prepared by blending g-C₃N₄ with polyvinyl alcohol at high temperature. The structure and morphology of the composites were characterised by X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, ultraviolet spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and so on. Their properties were tested by electrochemical and photocatalytic experiments. The results show that carbon microspheres can be loaded on the surface of g-C₃N₄ without changing the basic structure of g-C₃N₄ with a proper ration between polyvinyl alcohol and g-C₃N₄. Compared with the pure g-C₃N₄, the photocurrent after modification is increased by 1000 times and the photocatalytic degradation rate is increased by 2.8 times.

Keywords: carbon nitride; polyvinyl alcohol; carbon microsphere; photocatalytic; structure; electrochemical; photocurrent; improvement; semiconductor.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNM.2021.113307

International Journal of Nanomanufacturing, 2021 Vol.17 No.1, pp.26 - 36

Accepted: 13 Oct 2020
Published online: 26 Feb 2021 *