Journal
LANGMUIR
Volume 37, Issue 16, Pages 4859-4868Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c00044
Keywords
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Funding
- Project of State Key Laboratory of Environment-friendly Energy Materials, Southwest University of Science and Technology [18fksy0216, 20fksy17]
- Chongqing Natural Science Foundation [cstc2019jcyjmsxmX0784]
- Chongqing Basic Research and Frontier Exploration Project [cstc2018jcyjAX0420]
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The study demonstrated the presence of organic byproducts in K-doped g-C3N4 synthesized by thermal condensation methods, which negatively impact the photocatalytic performance. Hot-water washing was found to be a relatively effective approach to remove the organic byproducts. The formation of organic byproducts was attributed to the insufficient thermal condensation caused by the presence of K salts in the precursor molecules.
The thermal-condensation method is widely used for the synthesis of K-doped g-C3N4 photocatalysts, but the presence of organic byproducts in the resultant products is often overlooked in previous reports. Here, we demonstrated the universal presence of organic byproducts in K-doped g-C3N4 synthesized by typical thermal condensation of KOH/melamine, KOH/dicyandiamide, or KOH/urea. Taking the K-doped g-C3N4 photocatalysis for the degradation of dimethyl phthalate as an example, the negative influence of the organic byproducts on K-doped g-C3N4 photocatalysis was confirmed. Specifically, the organic byproducts can be gradually dissolved into the photocatalytic system of K-doped g-C3N4 as new and stable pollutants. Based on the solubility investigations on the byproducts in several solvents, hot-water washing was demonstrated to be a relatively effective approach to remove the organic byproducts from K-doped g-C3N4. The formation of organic byproducts during the synthesis of K-doped g-C3N4 could be ascribed to the fact that the presence of K salts in melamine, dicyandiamide, or urea molecules results in their insufficient thermal condensation into expected g-C3N4. The present work provides objective information about the K-doped g-C3N4 photocatalysts and reminds researchers about the influence of the organic byproducts on the applications of the other impuritydoped g-C3N4 photocatalysts.
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