A Unique pipe-like C3N4 with enhanced photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutant

Abstract

Morphology tuning is one of the innovative techniques to overcome challenges of a pristine graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) as a photocatalyst. In this study, a unique pipe-like C₃N₄ have been fabricated using a facile, environmentally friendly and scalable approach by treating dicyandiamide (DCDA) with ethylene glycol and nitric acid. The pipe-like C₃N₄ samples have been possessed unique structural morphology with enhanced visible light-harvesting ability, efficient charge separation and large surface area with more reactive sites. These enhanced properties of the pipe-like C₃N₄ have been exhibited superior complete photocatalytic degradation of methylene Blue (MB) within 30 min under visible light (λ > 420 nm) compared to the bulk C3N4. In addition, the pipe-like C₃N₄ have good photostability and efficiency (96%) and potential applications in other fields such as photoelectrochemistry, electrocatalysis, and optoelectronic devices.