Mesoporous polymeric semiconductor materials of graphitic-C3N4: general and efficient synthesis and their integration with synergistic AgBr NPs for enhanced photocatalytic performances

Abstract

The newly functional polymeric semiconductor materials, mesoporous graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄), have been synthesized by using a general and efficient sol–gel synthetic approach. By means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), we accomplished a systematic analysis on the morphology changes and the final formation of the mesoporous g-C₃N₄ product during the whole synthesis process. Our results indicate that the sol–gel synthetic method is a simple, efficient and viable technique to the large-scale production of mesoporous polymeric materials. This proposed technique also allows controlled development and tailored design of the pore structures, which is of crucial importance for the application of mesoporous polymeric g-C₃N₄. In order to effectively improve the photocatalytic activity of the g-C₃N₄, the uniform size of the AgBr nanoparticles (NPs) were successfully loaded into the holes of the carbon nitride by a simple adsorption–deposition method, which exhibits excellent visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity for degradation of Methyl Orange dye (MO).