Carbon nitride nanoplatelet photocatalysts heterostructured with B-doped carbon nanodots for enhanced photodegradation of organic pollutants

Bo Song; Qiao Wang; Li Wang; Jing Lin; Xin Wei; Vignesh Murugadoss; Shide Wu; Zhanhu Guo; Tao Ding; Suying Wei

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2019.10.015

Carbon nitride nanoplatelet photocatalysts heterostructured with B-doped carbon nanodots for enhanced photodegradation of organic pollutants

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2020 Feb 1:559:124-133. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.10.015. Epub 2019 Oct 8.

Authors

Bo Song¹, Qiao Wang², Li Wang³, Jing Lin⁴, Xin Wei⁵, Vignesh Murugadoss⁶, Shide Wu⁷, Zhanhu Guo⁸, Tao Ding⁹, Suying Wei¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Marine College, Shandong University, Weihai 26429, China. Electronic address: songbosduwh@sdu.edu.cn.
² Marine College, Shandong University, Weihai 26429, China.
³ School of Mechanical, Electrical & Information Engineering, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China.
⁴ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China. Electronic address: linjing@gzhu.edu.cn.
⁵ Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX 77710, USA.
⁶ College of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong 266590, China; Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Mold (Zhengzhou University), Ministry of Education, National Engineering Research Center for Advanced Polymer Processing Technology, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450002, China; Integrated Composites Laboratory (ICL), Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
⁷ Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Surface and Interface Science, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, No. 136, Science Avenue, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
⁸ Integrated Composites Laboratory (ICL), Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA. Electronic address: zguo10@utk.edu.
⁹ College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China. Electronic address: dingtao@henu.edu.cn.
¹⁰ Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX 77710, USA. Electronic address: suying.wei@lamar.edu.

PMID: 31614317
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.10.015

Abstract

Decorating electron-accepting materials on carbon nitride (C₃N₄) is a promising strategy to construct heterostructure catalysts for improved photocatalytic abilities. In this study, B-doped carbon-dots (B-C-dots) decorated C₃N₄ (C₃N₄/B-C-dots) catalysts were fabricated through the surface deposition. The benefits from integration of B-C-dots and C₃N₄ are four folds: (i) increasing surface area; (ii) improving visible light absorption; (iii) promoting the transfer of photoinduced carriers; and (iv) reducing the recombination of photoinduced carriers. The optimum photocatalytic activity of B-C-dots/C₃N₄ for Rhodamine B (Rh B) (or tetracycline hydrochloride (TC)) degradation was about 7.21 (6.56) and 4.80 (4.35) times higher than that of C₃N₄ and C-dots/C₃N₄, respectively, exhibiting both remarkable stability and repeatability. Moreover, enhanced photocatalytic activity of C₃N₄/B-C-dots could also be attributed to the type-II heterojunction formed between C₃N₄ and B-C-dots caused by B doping.

Keywords: C(3)N(4); Carbon nanodots; Heterostructure; Photocatalytic properties; Pollutant degradation.