Gas-sculpted g-C₃N₄ for efficient photocatalytic reduction of U(VI)

Photocatalytic reduction of soluble U(VI) into insoluble U(IV) with g-C₃N₄ is considered to be an effective strategy to remove uranium from waste water. However, the traditional g-C₃N₄ suffers from the defects of low specific surface area and serious recombination rate of photo-induced electrons and holes. In this work, a sample strategy of synthesize porous g-C₃N₄ was obtained by sculpturing with HCl which was derived from NH₄Cl. Furthermore, with the method of gas-sculpturing exhibit higher photocatalytic performance, which is 4.8 times higher than that of bulk g-C₃N₄. The method of gas-sculpturing suggests a new and promising candidate for constructing effective photocatalysts. (author)