A thiourea precursor was employed to synthesize mesoporous carbon nitride(C3 N4) by a thermal polycondensation process with high surface area SiO2 and nanosphere SiO2 as two types of hard templates. The resultant mesoporous C3 N4 samples have high surface areas(105–112 m2/g) and mesopores with narrow sizes distribution(9.3 nm). Photocatalytic performance was evaluated by removal of NO in air under visible light irradiation. The results showed that mesoporous C3 N4 samples exhibited significantly improved photocatalytic activity in comparison with bulk C3 N4, which also exceeded that of N-doped TiO2 and C-doped TiO2. The activity enhancement can be ascribed to the synergistic effects of large surface area and pore volume, enhanced light-harvesting ability, increased redox potential, and reduced recombination of charge carriers. In addition to the high activity, the mesoporous C3 N4 samples also showed high photochemical stability. The mesoporous C3 N4 photocatalysts with enhanced and durable activity could provide a new efficient material for environmental pollution control.
Fan DongYuhan LiWingkei HoHaidong ZhangMin FuZhongbiao Wu
Heterostructured BiOI@La（OH）3 nanorod photocatalysts were prepared by a facile chemical impregnation method.The enhanced visible light absorption and charge carrier separation can be simultaneously realized after the introduction of BiOI particles into La（OH）3 nanorods.The BiOI@La（OH）3 composites were applied for visible light photocatalytic oxidization of NO in air and exhibited an enhanced activity compared with BiOI and pure La（OH）3 nanorods.The results show that the energy levels between the La（OH）3 and BiOI phases matched well with each other,thus forming a heterojunctioned BiOI@La（OH）3 structure.This band structure matching could promote the separation and transfer of photoinduced electron-hole pairs at the interface,resulting in enhanced photocatalytic performance under visible light irradiation.The photocatalytic performance of BiOI@La（OH）3 is shown to be dependent on the mass ratio of BiOI to La（OH）3.The highest photocatalytic performance can be achieved when the mass ratio of BiOI to La（OH）3 is controlled at 1.5.A further increase of the mass ratio of BiOI weakened the redox abilities of the photogenerated charge carriers.A new photocatalytic mechanism for BiOI@La（OH）3 heterostructures is proposed,which is directly related to the efficient separation of photogenerated charge carriers by the heterojunction.Importantly,the as-prepared BiOI@La（OH）3 heterostructures exhibited a high photochemical stability after multiple reaction runs.Our findings demonstrate that BiOI is an effective component for the formation of a heterostructure with the properties of a wide bandgap semiconductor,which is of great importance for extending the light absorption and photocatalytic activity of wide bandgap semiconductors into visible light region.
