Affiliations 

  • 1 Nanotechnology & Catalysis Research Centre (NANOCAT), Level 3 Block A, IPS Building, Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei City 10608, Taiwan
Nanomaterials (Basel), 2021 Aug 11;11(8).
PMID: 34443873 DOI: 10.3390/nano11082041

Abstract

A highly mesoporous graphitic carbon nitride g-C3N4 (GCN) has been produced by a template-free method and effectively photodegrade tetracycline (TC) antibiotic under solar light irradiation. The mesoporous GCN (GCN-500) greatly improves the photoactivity (0.0247 min-1) by 2.13 times, as compared to that of bulk GCN (0.0116 min-1). The efficiently strengthened photoactivity is ascribed to the high porosity (117.05 m2/g), and improves the optical absorption under visible light (Eg = 2.65 eV) and good charge carrier separation efficiency. The synthesized mesoporous GCN shows a uniform pore size (~3 nm) distribution. GCN-500 shows large pore volume (0.210 cm3/g) compared to GCN-B (0.083 cm3/g). Besides, the GCN-500 also exhibits good recyclability and photostability for TC photodegradation. In conclusion, GCN-500 is a recyclable photocatalyst for the removal of TC under visible light irradiation.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.