Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Synergetic photocatalytic and piezocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants over graphite carbon nitride

  • Published:
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Environmental pollution has become an imminent problem for the healthy and sustainable development of human society. Although photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants over semiconductors was recognized as a promising strategy to resolve this problem, the degradation activity of most of photocatalysts was unsatisfactory owing to the rapid recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. In this work, significantly enhanced degradation performance for RhB organic dye over graphite carbon nitride (g-C3N4) photocatalyst were demonstrated, resulting from the synergetic photocatalytic and piezocatalytic effects. The photocatalytic and piezocatalytic degradation properties of g-C3N4 photocatalyst and the influence of nitrogen defects on them were investigated respectively. With the synergetic functions of light irradiation and mechanical vibration, the synergistic degradation performance is significantly greater than the sum of single photocatalysis and piezocatalysis owing to the recombination of photogenerated carries could be inhibited effectively by the created piezoelectric field in g-C3N4 nanosheets. These findings proved that the coupling of photocatalytic and piezocatalytic properties of semiconductors opens a new gateway to remove organic contaminants.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Not applicable.

Code availability

Not applicable.

References

  1. H.R. Dong, G.M. Zeng, L. Tang, C.Z. Fan, C. Zhang, X.X. He, Y. He, An overview on limitations of TiO2-based particles for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants and the corresponding countermeasures. Water Res. 79, 128–146 (2015)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Y. Chen, X.M. Deng, J.Y. Wen, J. Zhu, Z.F. Bian, Piezo-promoted the generation of reactive oxygen species and the photodegradation of organic pollutants. Appl. Catal. B-Environ. 258, 118024 (2019)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. T.M. Chou, S.W. Chan, Y.J. Lin, P.K. Yang, C.C. Liu, Y.J. Lin, J.M. Wu, J.T. Lee, Z.H. Lin, A highly efficient Au-MoS2 nanocatalyst for tunable piezocatalytic and photocatalytic water disinfection. Nano. Energy 57, 14–21 (2019)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Y.F. Cui, J. Briscoe, S. Dunn, Effect of ferroelectricity on solar-light-driven photocatalytic activity of BaTiO3-influence on the carrier separation and stern layer formation. Chem. Mat. 25(21), 4215–4223 (2013)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. X.L. Ding, Y.X. Li, J. Zhao, Y.Q. Zhu, Y. Li, W.Y. Deng, C.Y. Wang, Enhanced photocatalytic H-2 evolution over CdS/Au/g-C3N4 composite photocatalyst under visible-light irradiation. APL Mater. 3(10), 104410 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Z.W. Zhao, Y.J. Sun, F. Dong, Graphitic carbon nitride based nanocomposites: a review. Nanoscale 7(1), 15–37 (2015)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. X.C. Wang, K. Maeda, X.F. Chen, K. Takanabe, K. Domen, Y.D. Hou, X.Z. Fu, M. Antonietti, Polymer semiconductors for artificial photosynthesis: Hydrogen evolution by mesoporous graphitic carbon nitride with visible light. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131(5), 1680–1681 (2009)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. L. Jing, R.X. Zhu, D.L. Phillips, J.C. Yu, Effective prevention of charge trapping in graphitic carbon nitride with nanosized red phosphorus modification for superior photo(electro)catalysis. Adv. Funct. Mater. 27(46), 1703484 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. R. Godin, Y. Wang, M.A. Zwijnenburg, J.W. Tang, J.R. Durrant, Time-resolved spectroscopic investigation of charge trapping in carbon nitrides photocatalysts for hydrogen generation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 139(14), 5216–5224 (2017)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. S. Lv, H.N. Yun, R. Zhu, S. Li, H. Dai, Phosphorus vapor assisted preparation of P-doped ultrathin hollow g-C3N4 sphere for efficient solar-to-hydrogen conversion. Appl. Catal. B Environ. 297, 120438 (2021)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Z.S. Chen, S. Zhang, Y. Liu, N.S. Alharbi, S.O. Rabah, S.H. Wang, X.X. Wang, Synthesis and fabrication of g-C3N4-based materials and their application in elimination of pollutants. Sci. Total Environ. 731, 139054 (2020)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. J.Z. Liao, W. Cui, J.Y. Li, J.P. Sheng, H. Wang, X.A. Dong, P. Chen, G.M. Jiang, Z.M. Wang, F. Dong, Nitrogen defect structure and NO plus intermediate promoted photocatalytic NO removal on H-2 treated g-C3N4. Chem. Eng. J. 379, 8 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Y.C. Wang, J.M. Wu, Effect of controlled oxygen vacancy on H-2-production through the Piezocatalysis and Piezophototronics of ferroelectric R3C ZnSnO3 nanowires. Adv. Funct. Mater. 30(5), 122282 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Y.S. Fu, T. Huang, L.L. Zhang, J.W. Zhu, X. Wang, Ag/g-C3N4 catalyst with superior catalytic performance for the degradation of dyes: a borohydride-generated superoxide radical approach. Nanoscale 7(32), 13723–13733 (2015)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Z.H. Zhao, Y. Ma, J.M. Fan, Y.Q. Xue, H.H. Chang, Y. Masubuchi, S. Yin, Synthesis of graphitic carbon nitride from different precursors by fractional thermal polymerization method and their visible light induced photocatalytic activities. J. Alloy. Compd. 735, 1297–1305 (2018)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. S.G. Meng, X.F. Ning, T. Zhang, S.F. Chen, X.L. Fu, What is the transfer mechanism of photogenerated carriers for the nanocomposite photocatalyst Ag3PO4/g-C3N4, band-band transfer or a direct Z-scheme? Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 17(17), 11577–11585 (2015)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. C.N. Tang, E.Z. Liu, J. Fan, X.Y. Hu, Y.N. Ma, J. Wan, A graphitic-C3N4-hybridized Ag3PO4 tetrahedron with reactive {111} facets to enhance the visible-light photocatalytic activity. RSC Adv. 5(112), 91979–91987 (2015)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. S.Y. Lan, X.K. Zeng, R.A. Rather, I.M.C. Lo, Enhanced trimethoxypyrimidine degradation by piezophotocatalysis of BaTiO3/Ag3PO4 using mechanical vibration and visible light simultaneously. Environ. Sci.-Nano 6(2), 554–564 (2019)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. C.R. Bowen, H.A. Kim, P.M. Weaver, S. Dunn, Piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials and structures for energy harvesting applications. Energy Environ. Sci. 7(1), 25–44 (2014)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. D.Y. Hong, W.L. Zang, X. Guo, Y.M. Fu, H.X. He, J. Sun, L.L. Xing, B.D. Liu, X.Y. Xue, High piezo-photocatalytic efficiency of CuS/ZnO nanowires using both solar and mechanical energy for degrading organic dye. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 8(33), 21302–21314 (2016)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Y. Bai, J.Z. Zhao, Y.Y. Li, Z.L. Lv, K. Lu, Preparation and photocatalytic performance of TiO2/PbTiO3 fiber composite enhanced by external force induced piezoelectric field. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 102(9), 5415–5423 (2019)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. C. Hu, H.W. Huang, F. Chen, Y.H. Zhang, H. Yu, T.Y. Ma, Coupling piezocatalysis and photocatalysis in Bi4NbO8X (X = Cl, Br) polar single crystals. Adv. Funct. Mater. 30(7), 1908168 (2020)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. M. Zelisko, Y. Hanlumyuang, S.B. Yang, Y.M. Liu, C.H. Lei, J.Y. Li, P.M. Ajayan, P. Sharma, Anomalous piezoelectricity in two-dimensional graphene nitride nanosheets. Nat. Commun. 5, 4284 (2014)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. X.C. Wang, S. Blechert, M. Antonietti, Polymeric graphitic carbon nitride for heterogeneous photocatalysis. ACS Catal 2(8), 1596–1606 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. H.Y. Zhu, Y. Wang, J. Xiao, M. Liu, S.M. Xiong, Z.J. Wong, Z.L. Ye, Y. Ye, X.B. Yin, X. Zhang, Observation of piezoelectricity in free-standing monolayer MoS2. Nat. Nanotechnol. 10(2), 151–155 (2015)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. K.F. Wang, D.K. Shao, L. Zhang, Y.Y. Zhou, H.P. Wang, W.Z. Wang, Efficient piezo-catalytic hydrogen peroxide production from water and oxygen over graphitic carbon nitride. J. Mater. Chem. A 7(35), 20383–20389 (2019)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. P.L. Wang, X.Y. Li, S.Y. Fan, X. Chen, M.C. Qin, D. Long, M.O. Tad, S.M. Liu, Impact of oxygen vacancy occupancy on piezo-catalytic activity of BaTiO3 nanobelt. Appl. Catal. B-Environ. 279, 119340 (2020)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. X.C. Wang, K. Maeda, A. Thomas, K. Takanabe, G. Xin, J.M. Carlsson, K. Domen, M. Antonietti, A metal-free polymeric photocatalyst for hydrogen production from water under visible light. Nat. Mater. 8(1), 76–80 (2009)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. M. Groenewolt, M. Antonietti, Synthesis of g-C3N4 nanoparticles in mesoporous silica host matrices. Adv. Mater. 17(14), 1789–1792 (2005)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. X.F. Chen, J.S. Zhang, X.Z. Fu, M. Antonietti, X.C. Wang, Fe-g-C3N4-catalyzed oxidation of benzene to phenol using hydrogen peroxide and visible light. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131(33), 11658–11659 (2009)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. J. Cao, W.S. Nie, L. Huang, Y.B. Ding, K.L. Lv, H.Q. Tang, Photocatalytic activation of sulfite by nitrogen vacancy modified graphitic carbon nitride for efficient degradation of carbamazepine. Appl. Catal. B-Environ. 241, 18–27 (2019)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. W.Y. Huang, N. Liu, X.D. Zhang, M.H. Wu, L. Tang, Metal organic framework g-C3N4/MIL-53(Fe) heterojunctions with enhanced photocatalytic activity for Cr(VI) reduction under visible light. Appl. Surf. Sci. 425, 107–116 (2017)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. P. Niu, M. Qiao, Y.F. Li, L. Huang, T.Y. Zhai, Distinctive defects engineering in graphitic carbon nitride for greatly extended visible light photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Nano Energy 44, 73–81 (2018)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. J. Ding, W. Xu, H. Wan, D.S. Yuan, C. Chen, L. Wang, G.F. Guan, W.L. Dai, Nitrogen vacancy engineered graphitic C3N4-based polymers for photocatalytic oxidation of aromatic alcohols to aldehydes. Appl. Catal. B-Environ. 221, 626–634 (2018)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. H.R. Sun, F. Guo, J.J. Pan, W. Huang, K. Wang, W.L. Shi, One-pot thermal polymerization route to prepare N-deficient modified g-C3N4 for the degradation of tetracycline by the synergistic effect of photocatalysis and persulfate-based advanced oxidation process. Chem. Eng. J. 406, 126844 (2021)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Y.H. Li, M.L. Gu, T. Shi, W. Cui, X.M. Zhang, F. Dong, J.S. Cheng, J.J. Fan, K.L. Lv, Carbon vacancy in C3N4 nanotube: Electronic structure, photocatalysis mechanism and highly enhanced activity. Appl. Catal. B-Environ. 262, 118281 (2020)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  37. X. Wang, Y. Zhao, M.M. Gao, N.W. Cao, K.N. Liu, C. Li, X.Y. Zhao, Y.M. Ren, J. Feng, T. Wei, Nitrogen-defective g-C3N4 with enhanced photocatalytic performance fabrication by destructing C = N-C bond via H2O2. Sep. Purif. Technol. 264, 118424 (2021)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This work was funded by the financial support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51777138), Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin City (Nos. 18JCZDJC99700, 18JCYBJC87400 and 18JCQNJC73900).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tianjin Key Laboratory for Photoelectric Materials and Devices, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300384, China

    Chengcan Liu, Wenqi Ma & Zhiyong Mao

  2. Key Laboratory of Display Materials and Photoelectric Devices, Ministry of Education, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300384, China

    Jingjing Chen & Dajian Wang

Authors
  1. Chengcan Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Wenqi Ma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jingjing Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Zhiyong Mao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Dajian Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

CL and WM: Methodology, Writing - original draft; JC: Investigation, Writing - review & editing; ZM and DW: Supervision, Writing - review & editing.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Zhiyong Mao or Dajian Wang.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Liu, C., Ma, W., Chen, J. et al. Synergetic photocatalytic and piezocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants over graphite carbon nitride. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 32, 25033–25044 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-021-06960-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-021-06960-w

Search

Navigation