Photocatalytic degradation of aromatic organic pollutants: bulk versus mesoporous carbon nitride

Mesoporous carbon nitride (MCN) having larger specific surface area and more defects exhibited higher photocatalytic activity than the bulk one for degradation of aromatic organic pollutants under visible light. The different substituent groups resulted in the different degradation percentages. It was suggested that benzene derivatives with high structure stability or containing electron-withdrawing group (EWG) led to the deactivation of the aromatic ring. Although benzene ring reactivity was accelerated by the presence of electron-donating group (EDG), it was also affected by other factors such as the easiness to be adsorbed onto the photocatalyst and formation of no stable intermediates. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Nanotech Malaysia 2018.