Immobilization of g-C3N4 nanosheets on diatomite via electrostatic adsorption and their photocatalytic activity

Abstract

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) nanosheets have been successfully immobilized on diatomite to form a g-C₃N₄/diatomite hybrid through a facile electrostatic adsorption method and subsequent calcination process. Electron microscopy studies confirm that the surface of the diatomite is tightly covered with g-C₃N₄ nanosheets. In addition, the characterization results of Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) verify that there is a strong interaction between the g-C₃N₄ and diatomite components inside the hybrids. The visible light absorption edge of the hybrids exhibits a significant redshift compared with the bare g-C₃N₄ nanosheets and diatomite, which leads to the improvement of visible light absorption and utilization. The photocatalytic results demonstrated that the photocatalytic performance for methyl orange and phenol degradation using the hybrids as photocatalysts has been obviously improved compared to that of g-C₃N₄ nanosheets, which may be ascribed to its adsorption/photocatalysis synergistic effect.