Green synthesis of rectangular hollow tubular carbon nitride via in-situ self-assembly strategy to enhance the degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride under visible light irradiation

Abstract

It has been an urgent requirement for materials with remarkable performance in the photocatalytic degradation of organic contaminants by photocatalytic technology. Limited surface area and speedy recombination rate of photogenerated charge carriers seriously restrain the application of g-C₃N₄. Morphology control is a powerful approach to enhance the photocatalytic efficiency of g-C₃N₄. Herein, we reported a method to attain graphitic carbon nitride with rectangular hollow tubular morphology and asperous surface (TUM-CN-2) which is prepared from urea-melamine hydrothermal products and trithiocyanuric acid by self-assembling without using organic solvents or template agents. The specific surface area, photocatalytic activity, and photo-generated carriers migration and separation rate of the obtained photocatalyst TUM-CN-2 are vastly improved. Contrasted with pure g-C₃N₄, the degradation rate of tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) and Rhodamine B (RhB) was enhanced about 3.04 and 13.96 times in visible light irradiation, respectively. Moreover, the interference parameters, active free radicals, potential degradation mechanism, and degradation paths of TCH were researched systematically. This work provides a green way to acquire the modified g-C₃N₄ with splendid catalytic activity through the self-assembly method.

Keywords: Graphitic carbon nitride; Morphology control; Organic pollutants; Photocatalytic; Self-assembly.