In this study, visible-light-driven carbon self-doped graphitic carbon nitride photocatalyst was fabricated by a facile method with urea and ammonium citrate, and used for photodegradation of bisphenol A (BPA) in the aqueous environment. The experiments indicated that the prepared photocatalyst (C0.02CN) showed high catalytic activity, and 96.0%, 93.2%, and 95.5% BPA could be photodegraded in 150 min under pH 3, 6, and 11, respectively. The photocatalytic degradation rate (0.018 min-1) and mineralization (27.6%) of C0.02CN for BPA were about 6.7 and 3.5 times higher than those of the g-C3N4 (0.0027 min-1, 7.87%), respectively. C0.02CN had high reusability with a photodegradation efficiency of 84.5% for BPA after 3 cycles. Moreover, C0.02CN introduced additional carbon atoms, which generated C-O-C bonds in the g-C3N4 lattice. In contrast to g-C3N4, carbon doping enhanced the visible light absorption range of C0.02CN, reduced its band gap, and improved the separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Radical quenching experiment and ESR results revealed that superoxide radicals (•O2-) and photogenerated holes (h+) acted as important parts in the high photodegradation activity under visible light irradiation. This work puts forward a one-pot strategy for the preparation of carbon self-doped g-C3N4, displacing the high-energy consuming and complicated preparation technology with promising industrial applications.
Keywords: Bisphenol A; Carbon-doped; Photodegradation; g-C3N4.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.