Biomimetic synthesis of C-doped g-C₃N₄ spinous hollow microspheres from sunflower pollen with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic performance

Abstract

The C-doped g-C₃N₄ hybrids were synthesized by using melamine as the raw material and sunflower pollen as the bio-template. At a fixed amount of melamine (1 g), a series of hybrids (g-C₃N₄/C-X, where X is the weight of pollen) were obtained by varying the dosage of pollen. The g-C₃N₄/C-0.4 partially reserved the morphology of pollen, that is, spinous hollow microsphere with particle size of 25–30 μm. In comparison with the bulky g-C₃N₄ gained from melamine and other g-C₃N₄/C hybrids, the g-C₃N₄/C-0.4 exhibited highest visible-light photocatlaytic activity for tetracycline hydrochloride degradation. The introduction of pollen not only improved the morphology of bulky g-C₃N₄, but also improved its photoelectric property. The high visible-light photocatalaytic performance of g-C₃N₄/C-0.4 could be due to its large specific surface area, strong light absorption ability and high separation efficiency of photo-generated electron-hole pairs derived from the doped C materials which played the role of electron trappers.

Keywords:

• C-doped g-C₃N₄ hybrid
• spinous hollow microsphere
• sunflower pollen
• photocatalysis
• tetracycline hydrochloride

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51975493).