Facile preparation of CuO/g-C3N4 with enhanced photocatalytic degradation of salicylic acid

Highlights: • CuO /g-C₃N₄ sheets were prepared by using a novel one-pot method. • CuO/g-C₃N₄ exhibited higher catalytic activity than the parent g-C₃N₄ material. • The increased photocatalytic activity was proposed. - Abstract: CuO particles supported on graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) nanosheeets were prepared using a novel one-pot method. In the presence of ammonium nitrate, different mass ratios of copper nitrate/melamine were used to fabricate these catalysts, which were characterized using XRD, N₂-physisorption, FT-IR, TEM, XPS and UV–vis analysis. The catalytic performance of CuO/g-C₃N₄ was evaluated by photodegrading salicylic acid under visible-light irradiation. Among these novel catalysts, CuO(1.0)/g-C₃N₄ was found to exhibit the highest catalytic activity, which was more than 100% greater than the parent g-C₃N₄ material. The improved photocatalytic properties of CuO/g-C₃N₄ may be ascribed to the formation of p-n heterojunctions between CuO and g-C₃N₄, resulting in the effective separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and the enhanced absorption of visible light. Furthermore, the CuO/g-C₃N₄ composites had excellent stability and reused for five times without obvious loss of activity.