Modification of surface properties and enhancement of photocatalytic performance for g-C3N4 via plasma treatment

In this work, a plasma treatment is employed to modify the surface properties of g-C3N4 photocatalyst to enhance its photocatalytic performance. A suite of characterization methods are used to investigate the influence of plasma treatment on the surface properties, such as morphology, hydrophilicity and chemical bonding states. The comparative photocatalytic performance of pristine g-C3N4 and the plasma-treated g-C3N4 (PT-g-C3N4) for the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) are demonstrated. The degradation efficiency under visible light irradiation for PT-g-C3N4 is > 2.0 times as high as that of pristine g-C3N4. The remarkably enhanced photocatalytic performance for pollution degradation results from the optimization of the surface properties induced by plasma treatment. These findings may provide a promising and facile approach to design high-performance photocatalysts. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.