Facile fabrication of novel porous graphitic carbon nitride/copper sulfide nanocomposites with enhanced visible light driven photocatalytic performance

Abstract

In this work, a novel organic-inorganic heterostructured photocatalyst: porous graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) hybrid with copper sulfide (CuS) had been synthesized via a precipitation-deposition method at low temperature for the first time. UV-vis spectroscopy revealed the porous g-C3N4/CuS nanocomposites showed a strong and broad visible light absorption. Furthermore, the g-C3N4/CuS nanocomposites showed higher photocatalytic activity in the photodegradation of various organic dyes than that of pure g-C3N4 and CuS, and the selected sample of g-C3N4/CuS-2 exhibited the best photocatalytic activity under visible light. The good photocatalytic activity could be ascribed to the matching of the g-C3N4 and CuS band gap energies. Besides, photoluminescent spectra and photoelectrochemical measurements also proved that the CuS/g-C3N4 could greatly enhance the charge generation and suppress the charge recombination of photogenerated carriers. According to the experimental result, a possible photocatalytic mechanism has been proposed. Due to the high stability, the porous g-C3N4/CuS could be applied in the field of environmental remediation. Our work highlights that coupling semiconductors with well-matched band energies provides a facile way to improve the photocatalytic activity.

Facile Synthesis, Characterization, and Visible-light Photocatalytic Activities of 3D Hierarchical Bi2S3 Architectures Assembled by Nanoplatelets

“…As shown in Figure 9, both AO and BQ cause a strong suppression on the photodegradation process of RhB solution while ME exhibited a relatively weak effect. The above results reveals that the reactive species of h + and •O 2 − played a more significant role than •OH for the photodegradation of RhB, which is similar to the previous studies [42,43]. Because the stability has always been a critical concern for an excellent photocatalyst, it is essential to investigate the stability and repeatability of 3D hierarchical Bi 2 S 3 architectures in the photodegradation of RhB solution.…”

Enhanced Performance of Electrospun Nanofibrous TiO2/g-C3N4 Photocatalyst in Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue

“…The peaks between 3300 and 3000 cm −1 are related to the stretching vibration of N-H and the peak at 1637 cm −1 correspond to C=N bending vibration. The peak at 810 cm −1 is the most characteristic for g-C 3 N 4 which is attributed to the out-of-plane bending vibration characteristic of heptazine rings [15,21]. Also, the characteristic peak of PVP fibers is the peak at 1657 cm −1 , which confirms the presence of C=O bonds.…”

HKUST‐1 Derived Hollow C‐Cu2−xS Nanotube/g‐C3N4 Composites for Visible‐Light CO2 Photoreduction with H2O Vapor

“…The surface area and pore size distributions of pure g‐C 3 N 4 and the resultant C‐Cu 2− x S@g‐C 3 N 4 ‐2 were characterized by nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms (Figure S4 in the Supporting Information). Both of them exhibit type IV sorption isotherms with a hysteresis loop, which indicates the existence of mesopores in these samples . The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area and pore volume of pure g‐C 3 N 4 are about 61.2 m 2 g −1 and 0.237 cc g −1 .…”

“…Both of them exhibit type IV sorption isotherms with ah ysteresisl oop, which indicates the existence of mesopores in these samples. [15] The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surfacea rea and pore volume of pure g-C 3 N 4 are about 61.2 m 2 g À1 and 0.237 cc g À1 .C ompared with g-C 3 N 4 ,t he BET and pore volumeo fC -Cu 2Àx S@g-C 3 N 4 are enhanced by around 50 %, up to 95.1 m 2 g À1 and 0.313 cc g À1 .T his increase might come from the hollow C-Cu 2Àx S. These results illuminate that the loading of C-Cu 2Àx Sc ould evidently enhancet he surface area of the composite material, which will providem ore reactive sites forthe reduction reaction.…”