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Freestanding Graphitic Carbon Nitride Photonic Crystals for Enhanced Photocatalysis
Author(s) -
Sun Lu,
Yang Meijia,
Huang Jianfeng,
Yu Dingshan,
Hong Wei,
Chen Xudong
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201600894
Subject(s) - photocatalysis , materials science , graphitic carbon nitride , photodegradation , absorption (acoustics) , charge carrier , methyl orange , carbon nitride , chemical engineering , nitride , nanotechnology , photochemistry , optoelectronics , catalysis , composite material , organic chemistry , chemistry , layer (electronics) , engineering
Graphitic carbon nitride (g‐C 3 N 4 ) has attracted tremendous attention in photocatalysis due to its extraordinary features, such as good thermal and chemical stability, metal‐free composition, and easy preparation. However, the photocatalytic performance of g‐C 3 N 4 is still restricted by the limited surface area, inefficient visible light absorption, and high recombination rate of photoinduced charge carriers. Herein, a facile synthesis to produce freestanding g‐C 3 N 4 photonic crystals (PCs) by crack‐free, highly ordered colloid crystals templating is reported. The PC structure succeeded from the silica opals induces bicontinuous framework, stronger optical absorption, and increase in the lifetime of photoexcited charge carriers compared to that of the bulk g‐C 3 N 4 , while the chemical structure remains similar to that of the bulk g‐C 3 N 4 . As such, the g‐C 3 N 4 PCs have a much higher photodegradation kinetic of methyl orange and photocatalytic hydrogen production rate which is nearly nine times the rate of bulk g‐C 3 N 4 .