Inorganic salt-assisted fabrication of graphitic carbon nitride with enhanced photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B

With the assistance of inorganic salt, graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets were prepared with increased mesoporous surface area for promoting the photocatalytic performance compared with the one without. Series of photocatalysts with different mass ratio of NH₄NO₃/melamine were prepared and characterized by XRD, FT-IR, XPS, TEM, SEM, N₂ physical adsorption, UV–vis and PL spectrometries. Photocatalytic degradation of RhB under visible light irradiation (λ>420 nm) was applied to evaluate catalytic properties. The catalytic activity maximizes at an intermediate NH₄NO₃/melamine ratio at 0.15, giving a maximum performance, RhB totally being degraded within 30 min and kinetic constant reaching 0.167 min⁻¹ that is 4.5 times as high as that on BCN. The NH₄NO₃ assisted procedure is a facile, repeatable, environmental friendly, and efficient method for preparing g-C₃N₄ nanosheets with high photocatalytic performance.