Template-Free Synthesis of g-C3N4 Nanoball/BiOCl Nanotube Heterojunction with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity

Longfei Wang; Zheyuan Fan; Xixi Cao; Panfeng Fan; Yu Xie; Qing Sun; Jinsheng Zhao

doi:10.3390/nano12152569

Template-Free Synthesis of g-C₃N₄ Nanoball/BiOCl Nanotube Heterojunction with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Jul 27;12(15):2569. doi: 10.3390/nano12152569.

Authors

Longfei Wang¹, Zheyuan Fan¹, Xixi Cao¹, Panfeng Fan¹, Yu Xie¹, Qing Sun¹, Jinsheng Zhao²

Affiliations

¹ College of Environment and Chemical Engineering, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang 330063, China.
² Shandong Key Laboratory of Chemical Energy Storage and Novel Cell Technology, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng 252059, China.

Abstract

There are many reports on g-C₃N₄ nanosheet and BiOCl nanosheet, but few studies on other morphologies of g-C₃N₄ and BiOCl. Herein, a g-C₃N₄ nanoball/BiOCl nanotube heterojunction prepared by a simple one-step acetonitrile solvothermal method is reported. The XRD results prove that the g-C₃N₄/BiOCl composites can be prepared in one step. SEM results revealed that the g-C₃N₄ was spherical and the BiOCl was tubular. The HRTEM results indicate that g-C₃N₄ has an amorphous structure and that the (100) crystal plane of BiOCl borders the g-C₃N₄. Spherical g-C₃N₄ has a narrow band gap (approximately 1.94 eV), and the band gap of g-C₃N₄/BiOCl after modification was also narrow. When the BiOCl accounted for 30% of the g-C₃N₄/BiOCl by mass, the quasi-primary reaction rate constant of RhB degradation was 45 times that of g-C₃N₄. This successful preparation method for optimizing g-C₃N₄ involving simple one-step template-free synthesis may be adopted for the preparation of diverse-shapes and high-performance nanomaterials in the future.

Keywords: BiOCl nanotube; g-C3N4 nanoball; heterojunction; one-step method; photocatalytic; solvothermal method; template-free synthesis.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by Nazarbayev University Faculty Development Competitive Research Grant, grant number 110119FD4512; Nazarbayev University Collaborative Research Grant, grant number 021220CRP1922; Young Scientist Grant of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, grant number AP08052412.