Boosting Photocatalytic Performance of Polymeric Carbon Nitride by Adjusting its D-A Structure Via Functional Group Modification Strategy

Abstract

Solar-driven photodegradation of pollutant is attractive for environmental remediation. Herein, we designed and synthetized a new kind of group-modified polymeric carbon nitride (PCN) photocatalyst with urea and 4-Nitro-o-phenylenediamine (NPD) by one-pot method and applied to degrade bisphenol A (BPA) in aqueous solution. The light response range of photocatalyst had been extended a lot due to conjugation and electron-withdrawing properties of nitrobenzene. Physical analysis shows that NPD grafting brings an improved charge separation capacity. EPR and DFT results demonstrate the charge separation ability of PCN is significantly affected by its D-A structure altered via aromatic electron-withdrawing NPD group. The photocatalytic performance for BPA degradation was promoted by 10 times than unmodified PCN and maintained a good recycle stability. To verify the universality of group modification strategies, we prepared other two kinds of photocatalysts via electron-withdrawing group modification strategy and their photocatalytic performance all had been improved obviously.

Keywords: Photocatalyst, Polymeric carbon nitride, Group modification, Bisphenol A